Unknown Acquaintances
by Coincidental Catastrophes
Summary: This is our first story together. Lily's parents died when she was two, so she was sent to live with the Potters, and soon, she was one of the family. But after being sent back to live with Petunia for the next seven years, going to Hogwarts brings back o
1. Chapter One

*

The rain was coming down in torrents. It had been doing so for the last two hours. It was obscuring the visibility and everything was wet. In this harsh weather, two men stood, and a little ways away was another figure, about one third of their height, wearing a large pink jacket. The men were talking. 

"Poor little soul, that Lily is. Voldemort got to her place and just wiped her parents out. The sister, Petunia, was at a birthday party or something. She phoned home right when I got there. She didn't know a thing, but when she finally hung up, the poor seven-year-old broke down. She'll spend the night at that friend's house till we can contact her aunt and uncle. They live nearby," said a tall man with long silver hair and a long silver beard. This was Albus Dumbledore, the headmaster of Hogwarts. He was talking to a young man, around his middle-twenties.

"Voldemort is terrible, Albus. What's worse is that there is nothing in our power to put an end to his unjust doings. What are you going to do about Lily?" asked the man. This was William Potter. He was a famous Auror that worked alongside Alastor, or Mad-Eye, Moody. He had a son that was just around Lily's age named James Potter.

"I'm afraid that's where you come in, Mr. Potter," Dumbledore said, looking at him from over his half-moon spectacles.

"What do you want me to do, Albus?" Mr. Potter asked with a small note of confusion in his voice. Dumbledore raised an eyebrow, and then Mr. Potter understood. "I'm a single man. My wife passed away when Jimmy was just born, Albus. I don't know if I'll be able to handle two toddlers what with my job going haywire at the moment."

"William, in case you don't remember, I was your Transfiguration professor when you were at school. Remember that time when you were in, let me see, fifth year, and just two weeks away from your OWLs?" Dumbledore asked cheerfully.

"How can I not remember? That year was torture," Mr. Potter said, shaking his head. "But what does that have to do with anything?"

"In case you don't remember the rest of it, being a prefect you had more work than the other students, since you had to complete all of your homework, study for the OWLs, and assist the other prefects and the Head Boy and Head Girl as you all planned the upcoming events. Must I also add that the Chamber of Secrets incident had only just blown over?" Dumbledore reminded him. "You got the top score of all the fifth years, and you didn't show any signs of strain."

"Professor, that was ten years ago. This is now." Mr. Potter pleaded. He had called him 'professor' since he was for the moment in sync with his school days.

"And you'll do just as well now as you did then, if not better. It has been nice talking to you. I am sure that little Lily will be cared for well in your hands," Dumbledore said. And then, in a blink of an eye, he had Disapparated.

"Daddy!" wailed the short redhead from a few feet away. She was wearing a large pink jacket that went beyond her knees. The sleeves were also too large, and the whole jacket hung on her as it would on a hanger. Though the hood was up, and visibility through the sheets of rain was not good, Mr. Potter could just make out two red pigtails poking out from under the pink hood.

Sighing, he walked up to the small girl, kneeled on the ground, and put his hand on her shoulder. Lily turned around, and stared at him with round, emerald green eyes filled with tears.

"Oh, Lily," Mr. Potter said. Tears were threatening to fill his eyes too as he stood up.

"Daddy…" Lily asked with her head cocked to one side as she looked up at his face, her puzzlement showing on her face. For a moment, William was reminded of the last time he had walked into a house that had been attacked by Death Eaters. He shook his head quickly, as though he was trying to shake the memory out of his brain, and looked back at Lily.

"Yes, Lily, it's Daddy," he whispered softly to her. She seemed satisfied with his answer, and raised her arms up to him, as though she wanted to be picked up. Mr. Potter bent down, put his hands around her and lifted her off the ground, and walked with her up to his house.

"Don't worry, Lily. Daddy's going to take care of you. Just wait and see. You have a brother too, don't you know? James – he'll be your brother. If only I had a mother for you, Lily. Then it would be perfect." William seemed to be saying this to him rather than to Lily, but all the same, she put her head on his shoulder and her arms around his neck. She gave a large yawn, and closed her eyes.

"Go to sleep, Lily. That's right; go to sleep. Think happy thoughts, and go to sleep."

*

"Jamie, ready or not, here I come!" squealed the four-year-old redhead as she uncovered her eyes and set out to search for her brother.

It had been two years since Dumbledore had left Lily in the care of the Potters, who had accepted her as one of the family. She was a twin sister to James and a daughter to William Potter. Since both kids had been very young when Lily had arrived, they had grown to think that they were brother and sister. It pained Mr. Potter to think of how sooner or later, she would have to be sent back to live with her sister, aunt, and uncle.

"I found you!" Lily giggled as she wrapped her arms around the boy with messy, black, hair and round, silver frames. He let out a laugh too, as he broke the bond between them and set off running down the hall.

"Catch me, Lee, catch me!" screamed James back to her. Neither of them could say the other's name properly. Lily called James Jamie, and he called her Lee – sort of a gender mix-up, wouldn't you say?

They ran through the hallway and down the stairs and then started to circle the small dining table, but at that precise moment, William walked in, and both children stopped their game of tag, ran up to him, and attached themselves to either of his legs. They were barely tall enough to hug his waist, so they contented themselves with a leg for each of them.

"Daddy, you're back!" they squealed together.

"Yes, Jimmy, Lils, I'm home," he assured them. It didn't help their pronunciation that Mr. Potter himself called them by their nicknames – which were kind of like a mixture between their real names.

"Now, now, what's all the fuss about?" a bossy voice came from the kitchen. The owner of this voice was a short, plump, woman with a kind but stern expression. She had a number of fine wrinkles on her face and she was wearing a flower-printed dress with a big apron tied around her waist and a rolling pin in hand. This was Florence, the Potters' housekeeper. She had been hired before Lily had arrived to take care of James and keep house while Mr. Potter was away at work. She had been like a second mother to both children.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, you're home so early today. That is good, very good. Have you finally caught one of those hooded rascals? Oh, good heavens, you must be starving. I'll make some pudding to honor the day," she said happily once she saw him. Turning to the children, she said," Now, you two, mind you behave yourselves while your father's home. He's had a tiring day at work, and stay out of his way. Master Potter, that goes for you too. Take care of Lily."

"Oh, Florence, that won't be necessary. I meant to spend some time with them. Ah, Dumbledore spoke to me today," he said meaningfully.

"Oh, you don't mean that – but she'll have to – but that sister, she's dreadful! I went to make sure she was fine, and she threw her dolls at me! Such a child I have never seen. And to send Li –" she ranted, but Mr. Potter put his hand up to stop her. He gave her a not-in-front-of-the-children look, and she quieted down, her face quite pink.

Lily and James looked at first one and then the other, trying to comprehend what she had just said.

"Where's Lee going?" James asked finally.

"I'm going somewhere?" Lily asked after that.

Mr. Potter sighed and waved to Florence to go back to her work. He walked into the living room and sat down in an armchair, gazing into the fire. The two children followed him in, and with little difficulty, slid into his lap, both of them staring into his sapphire-blue eyes.

"Lily, do you remember the man who came to our house once or twice who had long, silver hair and a beard just like his hair too?" Mr. Potter asked her. He was talking about Dumbledore, but Lily didn't know his name.

"You mean the really old man with eyes like yours?" she asked.

"Uh, yes, Lils, that's him. Well, he's coming today to meet you and me. That's why I came home early today. You'll be nice, won't you?"

"Of course I will, Daddy." And with this, she slid off of his lap and walked out the door.

"Daddy, why doesn't he want to talk to me?" James asked.

"Jimmy, there's something important that I haven't told either you or Lily, and he's coming to tell you that," Mr. Potter said simply.

"Why can't you tell us?" James asked puzzled.

"I – I can't, James, I can't. I'm not the right person. Well, maybe I am, but James, you have to understand that there are certain things that I cannot tell you. There are certain things that must not be told. There are even certain things that no one knows. Please try and understand."

For a moment, James was silent, and stared at his feet, which were swinging back and forth. Then, he looked back at his father with a frown on his face.

"I understand. You like Lee better than me, don't you?" James asked, and with that, he ran out of the room, sniffling silently. William made no movement to stop him, but only stared at James' retreating back, and flinched when he slammed the door.

"Jimmy, if I could tell you that Lils isn't your sister, I would," William whispered silently to himself. He got up slowly, and walked into his bedroom and shut the door.

*

"Daddy, where's Lee?" came James' voice from his bedroom upstairs. It was ten o'clock at night, and Dumbledore had come and gone, taking Lily with him. She had been sent to live with her sister, Petunia, and her Aunt Stacy and Uncle Lawrence. It had taken a lot of time, tears (because she wasn't a Potter), words (from Dumbledore), and explanations (about what must be done), but finally they had persuaded Lily that the transition had been meant for the best.

"Jimmy, is that you?" came the strained voice of William Potter "I thought you went to bed."

"Yeah, I thought so too. But I'm not sleepy anymore. Where's Lee?" he asked again.

"Come down, James," William asked his son. Slowly and silently, James shut his door and waddled down the stairs. His face was stained by a few tears, and there were wet patches on his shirt where they had fallen. When he reached his father, he crawled into his lap.

"James, I told you that I could not tell you everything. But I must tell you this. Lily has gone to live with her sister and her aunt. She will not come back."

"I have two sisters? Why don't Lee and my other sister come and live with us?" James asked. It seemed the most obvious solution.

"Jimmy, you don't understand. Lily has a sister, but not a brother. You don't have a sister. I – you – Lily isn't part of our family, James," William said, before covering his face with his hands. James was shocked. How could Lily not be his sister? She had always been with him. She had called his father Daddy just as he did. _Is Daddy not my Daddy either? James thought to himself._

"James, Lily doesn't have a Mommy and Daddy anymore. You still have a Daddy, but she lost both of hers. That's why we let her be in our family. But now she's grown up. You're grown up. So we had to send her back. She has an aunt and an uncle who will be like her Mommy and Daddy. But I can't be anymore. And you can't be her brother either," William explained softly.

"Are you _my Daddy?" James asked._

"Oh, of course I am, Jimmy. I love you, and I will never leave you. But there are some things that we cannot control, and that's why Lils lost her Mommy and Daddy. But I will make sure that you never lose me, and I will never lose you either. I promise you that."

William wasn't sure whether or not James understood everything, and James wasn't sure whether he understood everything either, but both of them had come to a mutual agreement that Lily was going to be better off in her new home.

*

"Here we are, Lily. This is going to be your new home. Let's go inside, shall we?" Dumbledore said jovially. Lily sniffed in response.

Dumbledore took her by the hand and walked up to the front door of the large white house. He knocked on the dark green door three times, and the sound of footsteps was soon heard. The door opened, expelling a tall, handsome, woman in her late thirties with short, brown hair and a large smile. Behind her was a blonde girl who looked to be nine years old. These women were Aunt Stacy and Petunia – Lily's aunt and sister.

"Oh, Lily, you've finally come! And what a beautiful young lady you are!" squealed Aunt Stacy as she picked up Lily in a swift motion. And with that, she slammed the door, without a word to Dumbledore at all.

"Well, they seem to be nice, polite people," he said softly to himself before Apparating.

*

A/N: This story is by two authors. We both have separate accounts – Snoopy511 and KoolKitty. Also, we thought it appropriate to mention that some of our chapters may seem as though they have been written in completely different styles. This is because we're each doing alternate chapters. Anyway, thanks for reading and both of us hope you liked the start!


	2. Chapter Two

A/N: Hey y'all thanks for all the reviews! We got so many, and someone even put us on their faves list! Thanks a lot to all of you out there!

*

"I'm truly happy to have you back for another year at Hogwarts." Dumbledore beamed at the anxious students seated in the Great Hall. He stood by the staff table, looking dignified in front of the long rows of seated students. "I know you're ready to begin the feast, as always, but first I wanted to remind the prefects that their first meeting is tomorrow morning in the Transfiguration room. And, I would like to read off the prefects' names, so that they may be recognized for their accomplishments." 

A group of four boys seated at the Gryffindor table snorted in amusement. But before they could make any comments amongst themselves, Dumbledore carefully cleared his throat and began to read off of a small piece of parchment clutched in his hand.

"Sirius Black, Kelly Fortine, Brent Jackson, Elizabeth Locker, James Potter, Jack Tonroe, Jennifer Troy, and Christy Williamson are our new prefects." During the pauses between each name, applause from the respective House rang into the Hall. 

Elizabeth Locker, the fourth person who had been called, was grinning and smiling as the other Ravenclaws congratulated her. Unconsciously, she ran a hand through her red hair, which loosely tumbled down past her shoulders. 

For some reason, her attention had been drawn by one of those names- James Potter. She had that feeling of slight déjà vu; it seemed as if she had heard that name before, but yet couldn't place when, why, or how.

After thanking her friends, she focused her sparkling emerald eyes on the Gryffindor table, searching for the source of her interest. It was apparent who James Potter and Sirius Black were, since they were the only two boys at the table who were beaming with pride but yet embarrassment at being so called 'smart people'. But which one was this James? 

The boy on the left was rather cute; with coffee colored hair that was cut short and eyes that reminded Elizabeth of a cloudless sky, shining with pleaded innocence. Though with another glance at the way he held himself, you would know that he was far from innocent.

She shifted her gaze to the boy on the right. The moment her eyes fell upon him she knew that he was James. But she couldn't place a finger on why or how she knew; that strange feeling was coming back to her. She shoved it away and continued to stare. His raven black hair was the messiest she had ever seen, sticking out in all directions. But it seemed to fit him. A grin split across his face while Sirius whispered something in his ear.

In another moment, his pale azure eyes, hidden behind small silver frames, were scanning the room, and before Elizabeth knew what was happening, he caught her gaze. They stared at each other, both of them with odd expressions of wondering on their faces. _This is uncanny, she thought to herself, __I don't think I've ever met him – but he seems so familiar._

James must have been thinking along the same lines; he seemed to be racking his mind for something. Elizabeth reluctantly broke their gaze, turning back to her friends.__

 "I'm so happy for you, Liz, you've wanted this since first year," she heard her best friend, Laura Caricen, say excitedly from her side. The other girls in fifth year were talking amongst themselves, not concentrating on Elizabeth anymore. They were her friends as well – but more like casual friends, and not close.

There were, however, a pair of twins – Danielle and Michaela Foyers – who were also very close. However, they were the most tomboyish girls the school had ever seen. To prove it, they insisted on being called Dani and Mickey by _everyone. Even all of the teachers, except for Professor Dumbledore and the strict Professor McGonagall, called them by their nicknames, though the reason was more due to the twins' reputation for giving bloody noses to those four years older than them rather than popularity._

New professors were never welcome to that particular Ravenclaw class. One would think that they had been put in Ravenclaw by mistake, instead of Gryffindor, but as daring as they seemed they had their weaknesses, one of which was bad grades, and the other was – how strange it may seem – boys. At the moment, they were giggling at one corner of the table and pointing at the two prefects from Gryffindor.

Once they caught sight of them, Lauren and Lizzie shook their heads. Finally tearing her eyes away from the twins, Elizabeth replied, "Yeah, I suppose I have. But I can't relax now...I still want to be Head Girl."

 Laura rolled her eyes and gave Elizabeth a knowing half smile. "We all know that you'll be Head Girl, Liz, so stop worrying about it."

 She smiled slightly in response, not totally sure of herself. The food had appeared before them while they had been talking, and they busied themselves with the endless piles of it.

 "What's wrong?" Laura asked, looking at Elizabeth with a concerned expression. "You've been staring at your food for a few minutes now."

 Liz jumped slightly and shook herself back into reality. "Oh, sorry, I didn't mean to - I mean, nothing's wrong. I was just thinking." _What is it with James Potter? I'll have to talk with him at the prefect meeting. Maybe he remembers meeting in the past or something. It's possible, I mean we do go to the same school...but it seems deeper and more complex than that._

It wasn't long at all before Elizabeth looked around to see that everyone was finishing up, and she herself was slowly pushing her plate away. It was her duty to lead the other Ravenclaws to their common room, and so she rose from her seat and straightened her robes importantly. 

In a clear, instructive voice, she said, "Ravenclaws- please follow me, all of you." Everyone looked up at her and complied, some of them smiling at her, some glancing around the Hall, and others looking totally unconscious of everything except their friends.

She turned abruptly towards the great double doors that led out of the Hall. Slowly, so that the others could keep up, she began to make her way out, glancing over her shoulder occasionally.

While Elizabeth led them on, her thoughts meandered about in her head, closing out all of the laughter and conversation surrounding her. _It's good to be back here, away from Petunia. Aunt Stacy and Uncle Lawrence are pretty nice...but Hogwarts is more like home to me. I was so happy when I received that letter before first year...I'm even used to my new name, and it seems like reality, after using it for five years._

Elizabeth, in fact, was not Elizabeth at all. Elizabeth Locker was only her alias- to help hide her from Voldemort. She was really Lily Evans, though that name seemed a little distant now.

When she had received her letter of acceptance after turning eleven, there had been another letter in the envelope- from Dumbledore. It had explained to her that Voldemort (the wizard who had killed her parents) was still looking for her, and knew her identity. So, in caution, Dumbledore had come up with a new name that she could be known as at Hogwarts- Elizabeth Locker. He had noted that it was her initials reversed. She complied with his requests, slowly adapting to being called Elizabeth, or more commonly Liz. It was odd at first, but now seemed like ordinary routine.

And so her aunt and uncle had been proud of her, though they had somewhat disliked other magical people. They had sent her off to Hogwarts, with small smiles and waves, and Petunia standing nearby scowling with annoyance and envy. Yes, she loved her aunt and uncle – but not like parents. It was different, their relationship was. They cared for her as best they could, but there was always something missing; Lily just couldn't decide what. And it wasn't as if Petunia helped one bit, even though their aunt and uncle loved her too.

Lily's thoughts were cut off sharply when she realized that they were standing in front of the large suit of armor – Sir Frederick – that held behind him the Ravenclaw common room.

"Lucky Charms," she stated simply, while Sir Frederick moved aside and let the trail of students through. Lily smiled to herself upon entering the only too familiar common room that she had spent much of the past five years of her life in. 

The walls were a brilliant sky blue color, simple, yet nice-looking. There was a large and soft navy couch sitting near the fireplace on the left, with matching chairs surrounding it. She loved that furniture- it was the most comfortable she had ever known. Your body would sink down into it when you sat down, fitting you perfectly. There were two hallways extending from either side of the common room – to the left were boys' dorms and to the right were the girls' dorms. The hallways were filled with portraits, all waving and smiling, welcoming the students back for another year.

Lily immediately turned towards her dorm hallway, after pointing out which way the boys were to go. Footsteps echoed through the hallway as the Ravenclaw girls followed her down the tiled floor.

*

James Potter grinned to himself, seated in a chair in the Gryffindor common room. Sirius and Remus were standing nearby, doing hilarious imitations of Snape and Malfoy. Peter was sitting next to him, with a wide smile that split across his face.

James' smile faded slowly as he remembered the girl from the Great Hall. Her face was familiar, the bright auburn hair and emerald eyes; they struck a place in his memory, but that place was like a locked door, and he failed to open it and see the contents of the room. But the name – Elizabeth Locker –he didn't remember that. He didn't believe he had ever heard that before. It seemed, to him, that her name didn't fit her face, though he didn't know why. 

While he tried and tried, he couldn't bring himself to remember where he had seen her before, as it must have been that, or she wouldn't look so familiar.

But he just shook his head and smiled at his friends, and joined in their discussions as though he didn't care about anything else in the world.

*

Lily rose from her chair in the Transfiguration classroom, stretching her arms out. The first prefect meeting had been merely instructional – Dumbledore had told them their responsibilities and authorities and how to use them wisely. It had been rather boring, in her opinion, and she hoped the next one might be more exciting.

While stretching, she accidentally hit someone in the head with her elbow. She spun around quickly, her red hair flying out behind her, and became face to face with none other than James Potter. She sighed, shaking her head. _Well, I wanted to speak with him anyway. She bent down and picked up his silver frames, which had been knocked off. He put them on slowly, staring at her through the lenses. His eyes held the same expression that hers did – wonder and confusion. _

"Uh, I'm James Potter." He extended a hand to her. "It's nice to meet you."

"And I'm Elizabeth Locker." She continued to stare at him after dropping his hand. 

"Have I met you before?" she asked quickly, wanting to solve this mystery.

"I don't think so. I mean, I can't remember it. But you – I don't know, you're so familiar." He furrowed his brow and shook his head.

Lily laughed quietly. "I think we have met – we must have, or we wouldn't remember each other."

His lips curved into a smile. "Well, if we have met, I must have liked you before, because I do now. I think we could get along well, you know."

She nodded carefully, still looking up at him and trying to remember anything.

"James, um, this is going to drive me nuts." She said after a long pause. "We have to figure out last time we met. I need to know, or I'm going to be thinking about it all the time."

"I am too." He glanced around the room, just then noticing that it was empty and all the other prefects had left. Only one person was left in the room – Dumbledore. He stood in the corner, a glint in his eye, but not of amusement. He looked solemn.

Lily looked over, following James' eyes, and saw the old man as well. She decided that maybe Dumbledore would know something; after all, he seemed to know everything.

She grabbed James' hand nonchalantly and tugged him over to the corner of the room where Dumbledore was standing, humming a soft, sad tune to himself.

"Yes, Miss Locker?" he asked with a hint of sadness in his voice. He was rarely sad, and Lily wondered what was wrong, but thought it best not to ask.

"Professor, we were wondering if you might know if we'd ever met before…it seems that we are familiar to each other." She asked politely, looking up at him in question.

Dumbledore stared at her with pale, somber eyes. He seemed to be thinking deeply about something, stroking his beard. He looked back at them after a long moment of silence.

"Miss Locker, Mister Potter, you two are cousins." He gave them a small smile. "So naturally, you might recognize one another. I think I'm right in supposing that you probably met each other as little kids…" he trailed off, still in thought.

Lily and James turned towards one another, staring at each other incredulously. They supposed it _could be possible, but they didn't even look a thing alike…and wouldn't they have been told? But they weren't students to doubt Dumbledore (nobody was), and so they nodded, thanked him, and turned to leave._

But Dumbledore called after them. "Miss Locker?" he glanced at James, but decided that he might as well be allowed to hear this too, even though it might be private. "I believe it would be alright if you started using your real name again. There haven't been reports of Voldemort for years now…I think maybe its time to go back to normal." Lily nodded and smiled slightly, and James looked at her with very wide eyes. 

They walked out of the room together, with James still staring at her like a hawk. "Real name?" he sputtered out. "You mean your name isn't Elizabeth Locker?" he looked pretty confused, and rightfully so.

"Uh, no, it's Lily Evans." She stumbled somewhat over her words; it had been awhile before she had spoken her correct name. James continued to stare at her, probing her for an explanation. She sighed and began to explain. "Well, you see, Voldemort killed my parents when I was two. I was sent to live with my aunt, uncle, and older sister. They're Muggles…anyway, when I came here, I was given a new name because Voldemort may still want me dead. But now that he hasn't been around for awhile…I guess I don't need it anymore."

He just stared intently at her, absorbing it all. As we know, this should have sparked either or both of their memories, but it did not. He just nodded and smiled at her, and she smiled back.

"Well, cousin," he said to her, "You'll have to come around the Gryffindor table more often."

*

Professor Dumbledore stared after the two fifteen-year-olds. They got along just as well as they had as toddlers. It made him sad to see them together again, but happy too. It was just…he couldn't tell them when they had _really met. Mr. Potter was an Auror…and if Voldemort found out that and that he was hiding Lily Evans for a while, the Potters may find themselves on the top of the dark wizard's wanted list._

But for once, his cool, collected mask had failed him…_Cousins? Oh, why did I have to say that? They aren't cousins, they aren't related at all…and they might find that out sooner or later.... Well, it was for their own good. Now, at least, Voldemort will never know that Mr. Potter had a large role in Lily Evans' life, as well as young James._

*

A/N: Well, that's Chapter Two. Hope everyone likes it, as you did the first one!


	3. Chapter Three

A/N: Chapter Three's here! We're so glad you guys have stuck with this story! Okie, I'd better shut up… so here's Chapter Three!

*

"Hey, Liz, what's wrong?" asked Dani, as Lily stumbled into the room.

"Listen, the name's Lily, not Liz. I'll explain later, okay. I just want to go to bed _right now," she said as she made her way towards the hallway that led to her dorm._

"Whoa, you look as though Dumbledore didn't allow you to attend the prefect meeting," Mickey said as she joined her twin in interrogating her. "You're getting amnesia too. You can't even remember your name…"

"Nothing's wrong, guys. My name's Lily. The only reason I changed it was because You-Know-Who killed my Mum and Dad, and Dumbledore said that he was on my trail or something. That's why I've been Elizabeth Locker for the past five years, got it? Now really, I'm okay, you guys," she added when she saw the identical skeptical looks on both of their faces.

But before either Dani or Mickey could say anything, someone landed, literally, in the Common Room.

"Lauren, what happened to _you?" Mickey asked._

"Jeez… is this the 'what's-wrong-with-you committee' or something?" asked Lily.

"Lizzie, there you are! Where in Heaven's name did you go? Jenny said that your meeting was over at four-thirty, and now it's nearly six!" squealed Lauren as she got up from the floor. Jennifer Troy was a Hufflepuff prefect who Lauren had known from before Hogwarts. Now that they were in different houses, however, they weren't able to talk and meet as often. But when she had met Lily, Dani, and Mickey, she found that she no longer needed Jenny to be her best friend.

"It's Lily, not Lizzie!" screamed Dani and Mickey at the same time to her. They then looked at one another and burst into giggles. The other two just ignored them.

Lily, trying to avoid answering, asked innocently, "I went somewhere?"

"Oh, Liz, don't deny it! I spent the last hour looking all over the castle for you!"

The twins gave up trying to get answers out of them and decided to work on the Transfiguration homework they had received that morning. (A/N: Hey, they _are Ravenclaws!)_

"Oh, I'm sorry about _that… but I didn't go anywhere, honestly." Lily wasn't telling a lie, for she and James had merely walked back to their Common Rooms, parting at the top of the stairs that led into the Great Hall._

"You didn't go anywhere, my foot! I _saw you come out of the meeting room! I would have caught up with you, especially since you had someone with you, but one of those stupid Slytherins, Snake or Snape or something, put the Leg-Locker Curse on me! God knows why… you ought to report him for it…"_

"If you saw me, then you know that I didn't go anywhere. And for your information, like Dani and Mickey said, it's Lily not Lizzie," Lily responded with a small smile on her face.

"Lily, what do you mean Lily?" asked Lauren puzzled.

Sighing and shaking her head, which caused the curtain of red hair to swing about, she explained softly why she had changed her name.

"Y – You-Know-Who was trying to, to kill you?" she asked her eyes wide with fear. "That's terrible!"

"Oh, Lauren, no one's heard of him for ages. It's not as if he's going to suddenly burst into our Common Room and kill us all. Think logically for a change."

"Oh, alright, but _please be careful, Liz – uh – Lily. Oh, but tell me who was with you when you left the meeting!" Lauren said excitedly, her eyes shining._

"Oh, that was a cousin of mine, believe it or not. I thought I was the only one with magical blood in my entire family, but I guess not. Anyway, he's the prefect from Gryffindor – James Potter."

At the words 'prefect from Gryffindor' the twins' heads turned in their direction. Lauren and Lily, noticing this, burst into laughter.

"He's your _cousin?" Dani asked._

"Ooh, introduce us to him!" squealed Mickey. They were both now on the floor in front of her friends.

"You idiots, I can't believe you two are actually my friends!" Lauren laughed.

"Hey, you're right. We deserve better, don't we Dani?" Mickey asked her sister.

"Take that back, Michaela!"

"Hey, don't _call me that!"_

"Why should I listen to you?" Lauren said, giggling. She loved teasing the twins.

"Hmm… that's a good question," Mickey said, thinking.

"You idiot, she should listen to _us because we're better than her, and because we're smarter, and… and…" Dani joined in._

"You're better and smarter than me? Says who?" Lauren rebutted.

"We say so, ha!" the twins said in chorus.

"Who wants to listen to you?" Lauren responded.

"Well, anyone who's in their right mind would probably feel that if they don't, they're going to _pay…" Mickey responded._

Lily just laughed at the three of them. They could be really funny when they got into fights. And since that happened quite often over the most trivial things, life at Hogwarts was never boring.

*

"Hey, buddy, what took you so long? Sirius got here, like, an hour ago. What have you been doing?" Remus asked his friend as he jumped through the portrait hole that was the entrance to their Common Room.

"I've just been catching up on some popularity," James said winking.

"Popularity, now that's something I haven't seen for ages, unless of course you're talking about me," Sirius smirked.

"What about me? Aren't I popular?" piped up Peter.

"Of course you are, Peter. Who ever said you weren't?" Remus said in a sarcastic tone. Peter, not catching this, felt satisfied and turned back to puzzling over his Muggle Studies homework.

The other three just grinned at one another. Then, all of a sudden, James spoke up.

"Well, Sirius, we'd better get going. We've got a lot of – Arithmancy – to do…" James said.

"We d – I mean, yeah, we do," Sirius confirmed. Remus raised an eyebrow at both of them.

"I thought you said Professor Vector never gave you homework on the first day back," Remus said.

"Oh, well, you know. Fifth year means OWLs… we can't just lounge around. And we also happen to be newly chosen prefects," Sirius explained with pride.

Peter looked up and blinked.

"You're a prefect? How come I didn't know?"

"You were too busy stuffing your face with food," explained Remus. When Peter turned back around, satisfied with the answer, Remus looked back at them with a strange expression on his face. The three just stood not saying anything for a while.

"Weren't you guys going to study?" Remus asked.

"Study – oh, right you are – come on Sirius," James said.

Once they were out of earshot of the Fat Lady, James spoke up again.

"You know, Sirius, that was one of the best excuses you have ever made up. I was sure for a second there that Moony could see right through us," he said with gratitude.

"Naturally, my dear friend, I am always solving your never-ending problems, am I not?" Sirius replied with an air of someone who was all-knowing.

"Yeah, that's exactly why you forced me to partner Snape in Potions that time in second year, wasn't it?" he asked with distaste. "That idiot wouldn't let me do a thing!"

"And that's precisely why I decided to be Jemima Dickinson's partner – so that you wouldn't have to _do anything. I know how much you hat Potions – not that I blame you. That old geyser, Boswell, is such a bore. He's either complimenting his stuck-up house or taking points away from ours. I think –"_

"Siri, could you do me a _big favor?" asked James interrupting._

"I think he should be fired. But yes, James, do tell."

"Could you _please shut up?" he asked._

Sirius didn't respond to that. For once, James knew why. He had actually listened for a change. They continued to walk for a while.

"Jeez, we're already here. Come on," James whispered.

They had come to a deserted hallway. There was only a suit of armor present. Sirius, still not speaking, felt around the statue's head and flipped up the visor. Then, James whispered a few words into the space and before long, a gaping hole appeared behind the armor; it was a trapdoor. The two boys squeezed through and heard it shut behind them.

They had entered a small, but comfortable, square room. There were four chairs – all different having been scavenged from the strangest of places – a small, round table, a fireplace which had a roaring fire as soon as it felt their presence, and a cranberry-colored carpet that stretched from one wall to the other. There were torches hanging from brackets on the wall of stone and a map of Hogwarts was lying on the table. There was also a small cupboard against a wall. This was the Marauders' hideout.

"Prongs, old fellow, you can't imagine how good it feels to be back," Sirius said looking around the room.

"I thought you weren't talking?" James said, raising an eyebrow at him.

"I think it's your turn to shut up. Oh, come on. Do you want to get this potion ready or not?" Sirius said, annoyed with James' constant complaining. Sirius knew what would happen if James didn't stop, having known him for the last five years.

"I can't believe we're actually doing this. We're becoming Animagi. We're becoming Animagi _illegally…" James said slightly unsure in his voice as he dragged a cauldron out of the cupboard._

Sirius, not paying any attention, brought out a few vials and bags, as well as a couple of crumpled sheets of paper. He took out his wand and lit a fire underneath the cauldron.

"Okay, I think all we really need to do now is add the beetle juice and we're done. Of course, we'll have to let it simmer for a while," said Sirius reading off the paper.

"Are you even listening to me?" James squeaked.

"Oh, sorry, did you say something? I wasn't listening," Sirius said, turning to him with an impatient look on his face.

"That's exactly my point. What I was saying was that we're becoming Animagi illegally."

"You _just figured that out?" Sirius asked in shock._

James decided that it was best not to answer. Instead, he pulled out the vile that contained the correct amount of juice and poured it in. There was a deafening boom, as though the whole castle had suddenly collapsed.

"Holy shit, what was that?" screamed Sirius.

"It's a good thing Remus charmed this room so that the walls are soundproof," said James.

"Yeah, and it's also a good thing that he can actually do Charms," teased Sirius, grinning at his friend. It was common knowledge to the Gryffindors that James was hopeless at Charms. "Now, _you, Prongs, on the other hand, are a different matter entirely."_

"Sirius, what's with the name 'Prongs'? I mean, Moony makes sense because Remus becomes a – well, you-know-what – every full moon. But from where did Prongs come into the picture?"

"Didn't I tell you? I guess not. Well, I asked Pete to do a personality check on the three of us, to know what we'll be, you know. I'm a – now, don't laugh – I'm a dog, Pete's a rat, and you're a, well, a stag."

"I'm a stag?" James asked doubtfully.

"Yeah, you know, a male deer with antlers and stuff," explained Sirius.

"I know what it is for crying out loud!" said James. Sirius always seemed to make fun of him. Most of the time Sirius treated him like a child, but James wouldn't stand any of it. Remus and Peter looked up to them, though.

Sirius was the troublemaker of the gang. James was a troublemaker too, but Sirius was always the one who came up with the pranks and ideas, whereas James was more of the person who executed all of his plans. Both of them were prefects, but this was only due to their excellent grades. Somehow, they managed to top their class even with all the time they spent pulling pranks and cracking jokes. But whereas Sirius was all fun and no work, or almost no work, James gave equal time to both.

Sirius also seemed to be more popular with girls. He had the looks, and his eyes always carried a mischievous glint in them that make girls fall for him at first glance. James, though he did have the looks, didn't bother with girls too much. He saw dates and dances as a waste of time. He just couldn't see why anyone would bother going places with a girl when you could study or sneak around school under an Invisibility Cloak. It just didn't make sense to him.

Remus was their encyclopedia. He was smart. He helped them do their work and research. One would think that he deserved to be a prefect, but the fact that he was a werewolf deprived him of the opportunity.

"Okay, so what do we have to do now?" James asked.

"We basically just have to let it simmer for a while. Then we drink it. But we'll have to figure out the Charms first. It says on this page that unless the Charm is performed immediately, we will not be able to control our transformations. Basically, if we don't charm ourselves, then we'll transform at the strangest of times and we won't be able to do it when we want to. Anyway, it has to be kept like this for about another month," said Sirius grimly. Neither of them were very patient, and they felt that something like this shouldn't take as long.

"Wait, hang on a sec. Can I see that paper, Sirius? I'm sure there was a shortcut somewhere," James said.

"Okay, here you go, pal," Sirius said, shrugging his shoulders.

They were silent for a moment will James perused the pieces of paper. Then suddenly, James let out a cry that made Sirius jump.

"Jeez, Sirius, we can use a Time Charm! You know, the ones that make things happen faster! Why didn't I think of it before?" James said, hitting himself on the head.

"Hey, there's no need to lose brain cells just because you didn't think, though I doubt you have them… but that's getting away from the point. Why don't we just do it now?" Sirius said, exasperated.

"You want me to do it?" James asked, as though Sirius was out of his mind.

"Oh, you're right. If you do it the potion will probably going to blow up in our faces. I'll do it. But what's the incantation, again?" Sirius said, racking his brain for the words.

"I can't remember either… too bad Remus can't help us. Man, do we really have to keep this a secret? We'd probably have finished it last year if he had helped us," James said, complaining again.

"James, don't even go there. We've been through this already, like, about seven times. If he knows, he'll probably try and stop us. But what're the damn words?"

"Uh, something like _Passus Timandus or something," James said, scratching his head._

"Okay, then let's try it – _Passus Timandus!" Sirius screamed, pulling his wand out. Whether or not it was the correct spell, something was definitely happening. The potion, which had at first been a strange greenish-blue color slowly went to yellow, red, and finally, to a very dark brown._

"Do you think it's done? I mean, that spell didn't poison it or anything, did it?" asked James cautiously.

"Hang on. I'll check the paper. Hey, where'd it go? Someone took it!" Sirius exclaimed.

"No one took it, idiot. I have it. Here, I'll do it. Yeah, I reckon it's done. It looks like the picture, anyhow. Now, let's drink it and get it over with," James said.

"We can't drink it now; we have to wait for Pete, or else we'll be Animagi and he won't. We'll store it in the vials and drink it as soon as Pete's done with his homework." Groaning, Sirius added, "That's going to take a while…"

"What do you mean we've to wait for Peter? Who said he's doing this with us? He probably won't even be able to drink the stupid potion without spilling half on himself. I thought he was just helping us. I mean, get real. I know he's one of us and all, but does he really have to join us? Aren't the two of us enough? What can a rat do that a dog and stag cannot?" James scoffed.

"Rats can do a lot. We need Pete for this. Do you know how big of animals we're going to be? Sure, size has its uses. We'll be able to keep Remus from doing – anything – but at the same time, do you know how hard it'll be to get into that old tree?" Sirius asked him.

"It shouldn't be too hard. We just prod that old knot with some stick or other and slip in. It's a piece of cake."

"It's not a piece of cake – at least not from where I'm standing. Do you think a stag or dog would be able to pick up a stick and hit that old knot? If so, you've got another think coming. With Peter as a rat, he'll be able to slip through those crazy branches and hit the knot with no trouble at all," Sirius explained.

"Yeah, we're basically doing nothing short of _using him. Sirius, I don't know. Peter isn't smart, but he's cunning – not to mention sly. Don't ask me how that's possible, but trust me – it is. Peter can get his way if he tries. Fortunately for us, he usually doesn't. But one of these days, he's going to get us back. You have my word for it," James said. He had no idea how true those words were._

"James, the day that fat little toddler backstabs _us, is the day Voldemort goes down. And everyone knows that the latter isn't going to happen, so who's there to say that the first one will?" Sirius said. "Come on, James. Cheer up. We're doing this for Moony, okay. If Peter has a bone to pick with us, he'll do it. He's not the kind of person to keep a grudge forever. We've been like this to him for the last four years. There's no point in changing now." _

"You're right. But all the same, I want to talk to him about the whole thing. Come on, we should go and get him now," James suggested.

*

"_What?" Peter squeaked._

"_Animus Amorphous" James and Sirius screamed at him for the third time._

"Come on Peter. Part of this whole Animagi thing is getting the spell right," Sirius said, sighing helplessly. They had fetched Peter and explained everything to him. Peter had willingly agreed, but neither James nor Sirius were sure whether he had fully understood what they had told him, which was a valid explanation for his eagerness in going through the process.

"I'm trying, but I honestly didn't think you had to charm yourself. I just thought you eat some sort of magical substance or drink something and you're an Animagus. This whole potion brewing and charming process is way too complicated," complained Peter.

"Well, for someone who spends their whole weekend in the Great Hall eating breakfast until it is lunch time and then continuing until the house-elves come to tidy up, it would be a better idea to eat something, wouldn't it?" James joked.

"Shut up, James! At least I can actually do Charms without everything blowing up in my face!" Peter said, hot with anger. Sirius and James just laughed and turned back to cooling down the potion enough so that they could drink it.

"I reckon we can drink it now. Here, Sirius, ladies first," James said. Sirius just glared back and grabbed the filled vial. As his hand took hold of it, it turned even darker so that it was almost black.

"Uh, I'd feel a lot better if we do this all together," Sirius muttered. But James heard him, and for once, complied with his request. He poured them all an equal amount of the potion, and all together they held them, staring at it. Whereas Sirius' was black and Peter's had turned gray, James' simply turned to a lighter shade of brown. This disappointed him a little, but he just shrugged his shoulder and counted down from three for them to drink their potion.

"Okay, are you guys ready? Then here goes – 3… 2… 1!" James said, his hand shaking slightly. On one, they all bent their heads back and drank their share of the potion.

_I sure hope this works…_

*

A/N: That's it! I know it's only a little intro to Lily and a _lot of Padfoot and Prongs, but we'll get to Lily in the next chapter. And don't worry about James, Peter, and Sirius. If you want to find out what's going to happen, there's a simple solution – keep reading! _


	4. Chapter Four

*

"Animus Amorphous!" the three Marauders cried in one voice. And then they felt a tingling – first in their arms and legs, then spreading through their entire bodies like lightning. 

James looked down at himself, and almost laughed when he saw hooves instead of hands and feet, rich brown fur instead of smooth skin. But his laughter was concealed by wonderment while he stared at the other two and himself. It was unbelievable. They were Animagi, after all this time.

Sirius was now fully transformed into a rather large and shaggy black dog. He had a playful look to him; it had to be Sirius. He was staring at his feet and spinning in circles in an attempt to look at himself. Soon, he gave up, and stood on his hind legs, raising his paws up in the air in triumph.

Peter, now a small tan rat, was rather surprised, if anything could be judged by the wideness of his beady black eyes. He was a little frightened, and carefully scooted back out of reach of Sirius' paws and James' hooves. He fit the part of a rat well, and it fit him.

For a moment they all remained quiet, staring at one another. James swung his antlers in the air, slowly accustoming himself to the heaviness of his head. It wasn't long before he realized that they couldn't stay there forever, just staring at each other. So he stamped his foot, trying to indicate something. He wondered, though. How did you change back into a human? That could be a problem…

But then, thinking about it had caused some reaction. He felt himself grow taller, lose his fur. And in almost no time at all, he was a human again. He stared at his hands in amazement, and was almost surprised to hear himself speak.

"Wow. So that's how you do it." James looked up and saw that both of his friends had also changed back, and were shaking their heads in agreement.

"That was amazing!" Sirius exclaimed. "This is so cool! We have to get Remus and show him right away!" 

Peter shrugged – his eyes still as wide as sickles. James nodded. "Let's go; I'm sure he's still in the common room studying." With that, he started out the hole, careful to not hurt himself on the suit of armor. Sirius came out right after him, and Peter behind him, looking apprehensive, probably of how Remus would react.

They started out for the Gryffindor Tower, pleased and excited. But before they had taken twenty steps, Remus turned a corner and ran right into them.

"I knew you weren't studying!" he exclaimed, crossing his arms and probing them for an explanation.

"Well, you see…" James trailed off as Remus raised an eyebrow.

Sirius quickly replied, "We weren't studying, we –"

"So now you're keeping things from me? After five years? What have you been doing that you don't want me to know about?"

James spoke up, "We can't really explain it right now, let's go into our room and we'll show you." He finished hurriedly, afraid that Peter would speak up and reveal their secret to anybody who might be eavesdropping.

The Marauders ambled off, reaching the suit of armor in no time. Again, Sirius lifted the visor and whispered the password, and they almost fell over each other while they entered the room.

Remus stopped a few feet inside and turned to face his friends. "Now, show me."

They complied with his request, but were not, at first, totally sure how to transform again, as they knew they only were to use the charm once. But just thinking about it made them transform, as it had to turn back into their original selves. This time the transformation was quicker.

Each of them blinked and looked up at Remus, who had fallen backwards into one of the chairs. "Animagi!" he exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me?"

They shrugged as best they could with animal shoulders, and then slowly, one by one, turned back into humans. This completed, they each seated themselves in a chair, watching Remus' expression. He looked excited, but still angry.      

"But – if you think that you're going to come with me every month just because you're Animagi now, you're wrong. I'll hurt one of you, I know it!"

James shook his head. "We'll be animals. It won't matter."

Sirius agreed. "It'll be fun, Moony. Come on. Whether you like it or not, we're coming with you next time. You can't stop us." Peter nodded fervently in agreement.

Remus sighed. His face split into a grin. "Okay. You can come." his grin widened. "Thanks..." he didn't know what else to say.

Sirius grinned back. "Who says we did it for you? Now I can leave the school and go anywhere I want, and nobody will know it's me..." he scratched his chin, thinking of the endless possibilities. 

                                                *

"Liz – uh – Lily," Lauren still pronounced the name awkwardly, like she was calling her friend something other than her real name. But it was her real name...it was just weird. "We should –"

She cut off as Mickey and Dani burst into the dorm, looking pleased with themselves.

"We've decided," Mickey started. Dani took over, "that you, Lily, are going to introduce us to James Potter and the other Marauders." she grinned and both of them observed Lily with identical expressions.

"Uh –"

"Don't bother saying no, it's no use. You are going to."

Lily sighed in resignation. "Alright – tomorrow at breakfast we can go over to the Gryffindor table."

Lauren looked skeptical. "Are we allowed to eat at other Houses tables?"

Lily shrugged. "Well I guess we'll find out."

Mickey and Dani were ecstatic, and Lauren pulled them down on her bed to keep them from dancing around the room.

"So, what are you going to tell him about us?"

"The truth," Lily replied indifferently.

"Is that supposed to be good or bad?" Lauren asked, while Dani elbowed her. They laughed.

Lily shrugged. "I guess we'll know that by James' reaction."

"Well," Dani mentioned impatiently, "don't you already have an idea what that'll be?"

"Yeah," Mickey added, "you're his cousin, you should know."

Lauren just rolled her eyes and grabbed a book. Lily looked up at the twins, twining a strand of fiery hair around her finger.

"Sure, I'm his cousin. And I've known him for a couple days." she sighed. "Honestly, give it a rest. I'll do what I can for you, alright? But no promises – I don't know him well enough yet."

"Okay, okay." Dani and Mickey said in unison.

*

"Uh, James –" Lily stood a foot behind the raven-haired boy, examining the back of his head and those of his friends. They all turned around in the same moment, and she felt a compulsion to laugh. They were like the Three Musketeers...only not, because there were four of them. Well, James could be D' Artagnan. She smiled mildly. "I have some friends that wanted to m –" Dani poked her from behind. "That I wanted you to meet."

James smiled, but didn't look overjoyed. He often had girls who wanted to meet him. But then again, he did trust Lily.

"So, who are these fine ladies?" he inquired, his aqua eyes searching politely.

"These," Lily pointed to the twins, who were giggling, "are Dani and Mickey, as they prefer to be called. And my friend Lauren." she pointed again.

James gave them a grin and asked several Gryffindors to scoot over so that the four girls could sit down. Lily thanked him, and took a seat right next to him. Dani and Mickey looked annoyed, but hey, she was his cousin. She wanted to get to know him better, and she was doing them the favor.

"So what have you been doing since we last spoke, James?" Lily asked, turning to look at him and stuffing a roll into her mouth.

The boys exchanged glances and he replied, "Oh, not much. Not much at all." with a grin. He appeared amused at the bulges in her cheeks, but didn't mention it.

"Same with us," Dani replied, eager to join the conversation and get attention. Sirius looked her way, smiling.

"So girls," he simply loved to act the ladies man. And he was good at it, too, "how would you like to accompany us to Hogsmeade this weekend?"

"It's a Hogsmeade weekend?" Lauren asked at the same time the twins exclaimed, "We'd love to!" Lily shook her head at them, and then turned to James. 

"But I thought the Marauders always had their own little gatherings. Are you sure you want us along?"      

James smiled. "The more the merrier." And the twins squealed. Lauren and Lily smiled.

Sirius proceeded to crack jokes and soon became the meal's entertainment. Lily found herself liking all of the Marauders, even quiet Peter. She was looking forward to that Hogsmeade trip. And most of all, she was looking forward to getting to know James better. What a fortunate accident it had been to run into her cousin here at school.

*

After their classes that day, Lily and her three friends were walking back to the Ravenclaw common room, laughing and reminiscing the day's activity. The classes themselves had been boring, but that didn't mean that they couldn't make fun out of it. Suddenly a hand grabbed Lily's arm, and they all stopped. 

"James! What are you doing here?" Lily said, and he dropped his hand. He looked out of breath and his dark hair was all over the place.

"I just thought we could do some talking – you know, see if we can remember meeting as little kids, get to know each other…" he trailed off, the obvious question in his blue eyes.

"Sure." she smiled and turned back to her friends. "That'd be great." Dani gave her a 'that-is-totally-not-fair-of-you' glance, but none of them said anything, only beckoned her along. "Well, I'll meet you guys in the common room later." she waved and turned to walk down the corridor with James.

He stared back at her friends. "They're pretty nice. I like them."

Lily laughed. "Yeah, I do too. And I think your friends are great, of course."

"You should come by our table more often. It was entertaining today."

"But that was all Sirius," she said, a smile appeared on her face. "He's a funny guy – not to mention good-looking as well."

"Ah, say no more. I don't want to hear about the hotness of my best-friend. It scares me, not to mention puts disgusting images in my head."

"Oh, sorry then," Lily looked up ands saw that she had no idea where they were.

"Uh, James, where are we?"

He smiled. "I thought I'd take you to the Marauders' room. I got the other guys' permission...but we had to hide a few things that I do not have the authorization to tell you about."

He winked, and stopped at a seat of armor, routinely whispering the password. They stepped into the room, James smiling and plopping into a chair, and Lily staring in amazement.

"I didn't know there were any rooms like this at Hogwarts."

"Oh, believe me, we know about all of them." James replied, stretching himself out on the chair and lounging his feet on the table. Lily walked over and sat in the chair next to him.

"So..." she breathed deeply, staring at him. She was still in wondering of this new cousin of hers. 

"Well, I've been wondering. I can't seem to remember meeting, but it's like your face is so familiar, and the way you smile and act...but I don't remember. Do you?" he sat up straight, removing his feet from the table and looking into her eyes, still wondering why the emerald color seemed so memorable. He moved his gaze down to his hands.

"I..." she trailed off; something in the back of her brain was calling to her. She closed her eyes and tried to bring the memory out. But she couldn't. It was locked there....but one word came into her mind. It was on the tip of her tongue, so strong.

"Jamie," she whispered.

She opened her eyes in confusion. The word was lost; it was all lost. James looked up at her in puzzlement.

*

A/N: Thanks for reading! Please review!


	5. Chapter Five

A/N: Hey y'all and thanks for reading so far! We've got 48 reviews already – that's so awesome! Let's get more, okay?

*

"Jamie – who is that – she's not another one of your long-lost cousins, is she?" James asked skeptically.

Lily looked at him awhile, and then said, "No, I don't think so. It's more than likely that she's a – well, a 'long-lost' sister…"

"I thought you only had one sister?" James asked, starting to get slightly confused.

Lily sighed and muttered, "I thought I didn't have any _cousins."_

The two lapsed into silence for a couple of minutes. They were both so sure that they had met one another somewhere, sometime, in the past. Yet, they were both just as sure that they had never laid eyes on one other ever in their lives until the Feast on September 1st.

_He's so different – and he looks so different, too. How could he possibly be my cousin? Those pictures – the ones that just passed through my mind – I swear they were memories, more than anything. But where was that place – that large house, those squeals of laughter, and that name – Jamie… When did that happen?_

Lily's thoughts rushed around in her brain. No matter how hard she tried, her thoughts refused to straighten out in her mind. Giving up, she got up from her seat on the floor.

"Well, I'd better get going. I wouldn't want to be late for Charms, now, would I?" Lily said.

"You actually _like Charms?" James asked, gaping at her._

"No – well, yeah, I do. It's just it's so _easy! I mean, honestly, you'd have to be a __Squib or something – no offense to those who are – not to be able to pass!" Lily said, grinning. But her smile faded as she caught the expression on James' face. "Well, of course, it could be that I'm just good at it…" she added quickly._

"Well, never mind me – I never have been able to get the hang of Charms, but it doesn't really matter. I guess you could always help me out on the weekends or something like that," he said, winking at her. Then he got up too. "Coincidentally, I have my favorite subject too. There sure are too many coincidences that are happening, aren't there?" James said, smiling. (A/N: Ha – this is like what happened when we were chatting – we had too many 'coincidences' too!)

"What is it? It isn't Defense, is it? You seem like the DADA type," Lily said, scrutinizing him for a moment.

"No, that's Sirius. Really, you'd think he'd prefer something else, but no – he wants to be an Auror when he's out of Hogwarts. Course, he's also into Quidditch, so I guess he's okay. No, my favorite is Trans –"

He stopped when he heard a groan from Lily. She had wrinkled her nose at the mention of Transfiguration, and he looked at her, slightly surprised.

"How can you even _think about Transfiguration? I mean – it's just so, so, un-meaningful, and downright __boring. Grr – Professor McGonagall just drives me nuts! She's just so damn annoying! __ I don't think she likes me much, but it's not my fault if I've been on the verge of falling asleep nearly ever class, is it? I almost put a Silencing Charm on her once, but Lauren knew what was on my mind and kept me from doing anything," Lily ranted._

James smiled at her sudden outburst. Changing the subject he said, "Lauren's the brunette, right?"

"Yeah, and Micki and Dani are the blondes – the twins."

"Hmm – I think those are the two Sirius was talking about the other day," James said, giving Lily a meaningful look. Lily tried to read it, but sighed and failed.

"Well, I'd better get going," James said, standing up.

"The two muttered quick byes and parted. James ran back to his dorm to get his stuff and then ran back to the Transfiguration classroom just in time for class.

He walked in hurriedly, and saw that his friends had left a seat empty for him in the back. Walking up to them, he saw that they had already started making plans for the weekend. When they saw him, they grinned at him and beckoned him to come closer.

"Get a load of this, Prongs – just wait till we get to put our 'new abilities' to the test…" Sirius said, his eyes glinting.

"Oh, uh, right – um, did we plan all of this for _this weekend?" James asked guiltily._

"Yeah, don't you remember? We don't have a prefect meeting or anything, do we?" Sirius asked.

"No, I hope not. It's just that, I planned to meet Lily this weekend – we're going to do some studying… It just so happens that she's good at Charms, and she doesn't like Transfiguration, so I thought we should get together. She was talking about you, by the way," James muttered.

"Since when did you care so much about family?" Remus asked.

"I don't know. I don't care that she's my cousin. She's just really cool, that's all. And when didn't I care about family? You know what my dad's been through. I was too young when my mum died, but it's not as if I don't care," James said, sitting down and sighing heavily.

"Did you get to talk to the twins?" Sirius asked, changing the subject.

"No, but I tried to hint at Lily about you, but I don't think she understood."

"That's okay. Anyway, we'll set this for the weekend after next. Does that suit you, _cousin?" Sirius asked, teasing him._

"The weekend after next _is the prefect meeting," James said, grinning._

Sirius groaned and slid down in his chair. James could be extremely annoying when he tried.

*

Lily was taking her time in getting back to class. Her talk with James had brought back some strange memories, and she wanted to sort them out at leisure. What did she care if she had Charms next? Professor Flitwick wouldn't mind. She was his best student, after all, and he'd always given her some leeway. She didn't intend to miss class altogether, but she knew that if she waltzed in a couple of minutes late and provided a good enough excuse nothing would reach Professor Scoresby's ears. (He was the DADA professor as well as the Head of Ravenclaw House.)

Lily directed her thoughts back at her strange memory. As she walked down the corridors, not taking any interest in where she was going, she shut her eyes for just a moment to see if anything else came back. She expected to remember something, but she didn't know what to expect to see. And what she saw was far from anything she could have expected.

*flashback*

"Lee, hurry up! Daddy's calling. He's taking us with him to see his big office!" called a child's voice.

Instead of another voice, the boy was answered by a giggle.

"I'm not Lee – I'm a hippogriff! Roar – I'm going to beat you up!"

A small redheaded three-year-old shuffled across the second story landing. She walked up to the railing, and stuck her head through, apparently looking for the boy who had called her. She looked everywhere, but couldn't see him. What she didn't know, however was that he was behind her.

He stuck his hands out and tickled her, screaming, "Rah – I've got you now, hippogriff! I'm someone from Daddy's office and I'm taking you in!"

The effect wasn't what either one had expected. The girl was small and thin, and the tickling had made her squirm just enough that she slipped through the railing completely – and fell.

Her screams were heard throughout the house. The boy at the top just watched her, too shocked to say anything. He didn't know what to do, and just plopped down and started to cry.

Soon, however, the screaming stopped, and more sobs joined that of the boy's. But, there was another sound, too; it was someone else's voice.

"Lils, are you okay? What happened? How did you fall? Oh, it is all okay now, Lily. Daddy's here now," the man said, soothing her.

The boy at the top just swayed back and forth – too shocked to say a word. His black hair lay as messy as ever on his head. His hands wiped his tear-stained face, and rubbed his blue eyes – the blue eyes behind silver frames.

*end of flashback*

Lily jerked her eyes open, drawing in her breath painfully. Had that girl – had that girl been _her? And that man – was that her father? But no, he looked so different from the pictures she had seen of him in her aunt's house. And neither she nor Petunia looked anything like him. Then who was he? And __who was that boy? He looked so familiar… He looked like – like…_

"Lily, where have you been?"

Lily whirled around to see Micki framed in the doorway she had just passed by. Lily spotted Lauren's impatient face behind her, and from behind her, Lily could hear Dani's voice.

"Come on Lily, class starts in a minute!" Lauren called this time, shoving Micki out of the way.

"Oh, it's you guys," Lily said, shaking her head as she finally got out of her trance. "For a minute, I thought it was part of my – uh, never mind, let's go."

At first, she thought she was still reliving her memories, but as she realized that the reminiscence had passed, she smiled at her three friends and walked inside. She had brought her stuff with her, which was lucky. She didn't feel like walking back again; she expected more memories to come and overwhelm her.

"Are you alright, Lily? What happened – James didn't do anything, did he?" Lauren asked cautiously.

"Don't be daft. What would he do? Honestly, Lauren, he's my _cousin, remember? And I'm fine, really. I just – I don't know. I'm a bit tired."_

"Well, never mind that – tell us about James!" Dani called. She had been hopping impatiently from one foot to another, and now the other three knew why.

"He's nice, I guess. Sirius seems to like you two, though – or something or other. James was hinting something about Sirius, but I was too confused – I mean, tired – to really bother."

"Sirius – do you mean the other prefect?" Micki, said, her eyes lighting up.

"Yeah – that's who I'm talking about – the good-looking one," Lily said, winking at them.

Lauren rolled her eyes at the three of them. "Honestly, don't you three have anything better to talk about instead of _boys?"_

Lily, Micki, and Dani just laughed at her. As uninterested in boys as Lauren tried to be, she had, on certain occasions, flirted more than Dani and Micki had ever tried to do. Of course, more guys took interest in Lauren than she took in them, so she wasn't as interested in them as the twins.

"Okay, we'll stop. We'd have to anyway – Flitwick's here. Let's go to the back – we can talk then," Dani said.

The four got up and walked over to the desks in the corner next to the window. Lily couldn't help but smile as she felt the warm sunshine on her face. But as she looked outside, she saw her own reflection on the window. Without realizing what she was doing, she lifted up her hand to touch it. Her face – it hadn't changed much from the pictures on the mantelpiece in her aunt's house. And it hadn't changed much from the memories she had had either…

"Lily, sit _down? What are you doing? What's out there? The Quidditch teams aren't practicing, are they? It's too early in the year for that," Dani called, walking up to her._

"Oh, nothing – I was just thinking about what a nice day it was and such. I like Fridays, don't you? I like them a lot – especially since we get the mornings off," Lily said, smiling to herself.

"Yeah, I guess that's a good thing. It's a good way of having leisure – without the younger kids running around. Honestly, I don't think _I was so annoying when __I was thirteen. Third years can be so immature," Dani said, shaking her head._

Lily smiled even more. Dani, catching the expression on her face, said, "What – I wasn't annoying. I wasn't immature, was I?"

"Oh, no, you weren't any more immature _then than you are now," Lily reassured, now grinning widely._

"See, what did I tell – hey, that's mean!" she squealed, taking in the full meaning of Lily's teasing.

"Settle down, girls. Class has started," called Professor Flitwick.

"Sorry, Professor, we didn't realize the time," Lily said, shrugging and smiling at him sweetly.

"It's alright, now, Miss Evans. Just take a seat and settle down."

Dani gave her a thumbs-up and they both sat down quietly, still grinning. Lauren rolled her eyes at the two, and Micki did a strange imitation of Lily and started batting her eyelashes at them, making Dani have to duck under the desk to hide her laughter.

But as happy as Lily looked on the outside, she was confused to no end on the inside. 

_Who was that black-haired boy? And was that man really my father?_

She listened to her professor silently and did whatever they were told indifferently. She didn't feel like talking, so avoided attracting attention in class as she sometimes did in Charms.

By the time the class was over, Lily had made up her mind. She was going to write a letter to Aunt Stacy.

_No, even better – I'll write to Dumbledore. He may not want to tell me the truth to my face, so I'll owl him. Boy, won't he be surprised._

*


	6. Chapter Six

A/N: Hey again, and thanks for the reviews- we both really appreciate it!

*

Lily and her friends walked back to the Ravenclaw common room slowly, idly joking with each other. At least, her friends were joking. But her mind was elsewhere. 

What was she going to write in her letter to Dumbledore? 'I think you were lying to us and I just wanted to make sure' didn't seem like it would cut it.

"Lily? _Lily!" Dani called after her. Lily laughed, realizing that she had just completely passed Sir Frederick, and the three of them were amused at her ignorance._

"What's gotten into you?" Lauren asked, twirling a strand of dark hair around her finger unconsciously. "At this rate, you'll be putting on two different shoes tomorrow."

"Hey – I've done that before!" Mickey exclaimed, giggling to herself. The others just gave her another look that implied that it probably wasn't best to tell everybody things such as that.

"I'm just tired," Lily said, walking through the doorway where the suit of armor had moved aside.

Dani leaned over to her sister. "I don't think I believe her," she whispered.

Mickey nodded vigorously. Lauren followed the red-head without saying a word, but watched her skeptically.

Lily ran over random possibilities for her letter, quickly discarding them all. She turned to look back at her three friends. It wouldn't be possible to write the letter around them- it wasn't as if she were sure about this....it was only a possibility. Who knows? Jamie from her flashback could just happen to look-

"Honestly, I think maybe her name isn't Lily and it really is Liz. She won't respond to Lily, anyhow," Mickey said softly to the others. They were all grinning. 

"I am listening, you know. As I said, I'm tired..."

But it seemed that they weren't going to believe that anymore. 

"Lily, you're never tired like this. This isn't tired. It's called daydreaming." Dani snickered. "What we want to know is –"

 "What you're daydreaming about!" Mickey finished for her and they both grinned.

"You know I heard happy places weren't always good for you..." Lauren trailed off while Lily rolled her eyes, turning away and smiling to herself on her walk back to her dorm.

*

"Prongs – I thought you mentioned something to Lily about the twins and well, me…" Sirius looked over at his friend, who had been staring out the window. He wasn't sure he liked this new, thoughtful James. Too much family couldn't possibly do anyone good…

"I did. But I'm not sure that she got the message."

"Well, you'll be studying with her this weekend, won't you?"

James nodded in consent. "Yeah, sure, I'll mention it again, then."

Remus, who had been listening from the other side of the room, joined the conversation. "Uh, Padfoot, which one of them do you like?"

"Well, they're twins. I don't know…"

"Just because they're twins doesn't mean you can have both of them!" Peter squeaked. "Can I have one?"

The other three Marauders laughed. "Sure, Wormtail, sure..." 

"When are we holding our, uh, outing?" Sirius asked.

"I figured since this weekend won't be good for me," Sirius rolled his eyes and James continued, ignoring him, "and next weekend is our prefect meeting…well, how about the weekend after?"

Remus cleared his throat. "Uh – well, I'll be getting 'sick' in a few days – before this weekend – maybe we could arrange something on Friday night?"

"That's fine with me. I'm meeting Lily on Saturday," James said, giving them a toothy grin. 

"You think we should try it for the first time when you've already transformed?" Peter asked. Sirius elbowed him roughly.

"I do! This is going to be fun. Now Remus, should we meet you outside the Shrieking Shack passageway?"

"I don't know… I guess so. But I thought we were going to stay around the grounds for a bit. You know, explore and such…"

"Well of course we are, Moony!" Sirius proceeded to slap him on the back rather hard. "What good would all this Animagi business have been otherwise?"

*

Professor Dumbledore –

I know that you told James and me that we were cousins, and yet I can't help but wonder why I don't remember him. Actually, more like I do remember him, but not the 'him' that I'm supposed to be remembering. I was wondering if you had any information that you could give to me- such as when we met as little kids- that might help. Sorry to ask you for such an unimportant thing when you're busy, it's just that I keep thinking about the whole thing and it would be a weight off of my back, and James', I'm sure, if we could know just a little bit about our family history.

Thanks a lot,

Liliane Evans

Lily read over the letter, and then taking a glance at the trash can full of crumpled paper balls, she decided this would simply have to do. Another glance across the room and she was relieved to see that her friends were still sound asleep. She didn't begin to think about why it mattered. It was just simply one of those things that wouldn't be a big deal if you were seen, but then again, you didn't want to be seen for some reason. Or questioned, for that matter... She folded the letter in half and slipped it inside the robe she was planning on wearing the next day. 

"I'll just get up early and," she yawned loudly, stretching, "go to the Owlery…" Exhausted, she slipped her feet under the sheets of her bed, smiling. (A/N: Can you tell that I'm tired? Lol…) It wasn't another moment before she joined her friends in slumber.

*

"Ow!" James hissed.

"Be quiet!" Peter screeched in reply.

Sirius bent over the Marauder's Map, inspecting the area carefully. Despite having done it many times, fitting all three of their bodies under one invisibility cloak was neither comfortable nor easy. At least it wasn't four people.

"Remus had better be waiting for us. It's cold out here," Peter complained, as soon as the castle door slammed shut behind them.

"Well, I'm still not sure that he's conscious at all when he's like this…" James trailed off, thinking it would be best to go ahead and transform. He did, and the others followed.

In their new forms – aware of how strange and new this was to them – they ran towards the well-known willow tree. And sure enough, there was a werewolf trotting back and forth across the base. His yellow-gray eyes flicked while he watched the three Animagi approach.

Over the next few hours, they scampered across the Hogwarts grounds, pausing for nothing and refusing to wonder what anybody looking out the window might think of. The only downside to all of this was that they couldn't talk in their animal forms. Then again, with Sirius there, that might have been a good thing.

It was not until James looked up – his antlers catching the moonlight and casting shadows – and saw that it was late, very late. Sure, it was Friday night… but he didn't want to be falling asleep on Lily the next day.

They had developed a sort of silent language already, and after a few moments of blank silence, James managed to indicate to them that he was headed back to his bed. They nodded their heads, and ran back together. Remus, of course, headed his own way, but the rest of them tumbled into the castle panting and hurriedly throwing James' cloak over their heads. 

"That was fun…" Peter said in his usual, slightly jumpy voice.

"We have to do that again," Sirius said, starting to walk off before realizing that he couldn't go anywhere without the two of them.

James grunted at his idiotic friend. "Might as well get going, shouldn't we? I don't see what good standing here is doing us."

But even as he said it, they had already started walking, and in five minutes the Fat Lady let them in, looking around and shaking her head sleepily.

*

"Lily, what time were you supposed to meet James again?" Lauren stood over her bed, Dani and Mickey nearby talking to each other in low voices.

Lily groaned and rolled over, until she felt three pairs of hands shaking her awake. 

"Ugh! Go away!" Mistily, she opened her bright eyes and looked at them with annoyance. "Let me go back to sleep."

But they simply grinned. "Lily – James."

At this, she sprang out of her bed, running a hand through her disheveled red hair. "Oh, crap! Thanks guys!"

With amazing speed, she brushed her teeth and hair, got dressed, and rushed out of the dorm with a quick goodbye, amid giggles from her friends.

She reached a hand into her robes as she ran, relieved to find her letter still there. "A quick trip to the Owlery will be okay… I'm late already anyway." she mumbled to herself, carefully making her way up the curving stairs. 

Lily found her own owl not there, and went ahead and picked out one of the Hogwarts owls. She could only hope for a quick response. Now, it was time for James.

She rushed through the halls as quickly as her feet would take her, and found James waiting in the corridor that led to the Marauders' room, where they had agreed to meet.

He grinned when she stopped before him, panting and looking rushed. "I was beginning to think you weren't going to come."

"I...sorry...slept...too late."

"It is alright, I guess," he grinned again. "Let's go ahead in."

She followed him past the suit of armor into the room that she had been in just a few days before.

"Sorry about that James, I just went to bed late and...Well, didn't wake up." She wasn't about to explain why she had gone to bed late; she didn't want James to think she was crazy.

"Well, let's get started." James said enthusiastically. 

*

"Do you ever wonder whether they're really studying?" Sirius asked with a grin.

"That's disgusting Padfoot...they're cousins." Remus replied, not looking up from his stack of homework.

"Well, you know. I was just thinking."

"I think you should delete thoughts such as those as soon as they come up."

Peter burst into the room, looking weary. "I have been bombarded by Lily's friends. Those twins...Sirius, they were asking about you. If they do it again I'm going to just tell them you have a thing for one or the other of 'em. I can't take that." he spread out across his bed.

"Uh – okay, Peter." Sirius looked a little confused, and turned back to Remus. "James better mention something to Lily..."

*

James and Lily took one look at each other and burst out laughing. So the charms and transfiguring hadn't gone as well as they might have hoped...

Lily choked back another laugh to say, "James, you look absolutely ridiculous with those spots all over your face. I told you were saying it wrong!"

"Well, take a look at yourself – a tail! Even Sirius has never done that!" 

Slowly, their laughter diminished, and they managed to right themselves, after a fashion. 

"I would say that's enough practicing for one night..."

And then James remembered. "Um, Lily..."

"Huh?" She looked up, waiting for him to continue.

"Well, you see, Sirius has a thing for your friends – the twins."

"Which one?" she asked, biting back a grin.

"That's what Remus said..." They started laughing again, for no reason at all.

*


	7. Chapter Seven

A/N: Hey y'all and thanks for reviewing – as usual! Once again, please check out our songfic too! It might be a bit of a spoiler – but it's gotten good feedback so far!

*

Dumbledore was sitting at his desk in his office. His face was grave and his eyes were missing their usual twinkle. There were a pile of papers in front of him, but he was not reading them. Instead, he was busy with a small letter, written in neat purple ink. It was signed Liliane Evans. Perhaps, he was wrong in asking her to use her real name again. Perhaps, she should have stayed as Elizabeth Locker. But, perhaps he really had done the right thing. Now, there were more pressing matters.

He had received an urgent letter from the Ministry regarding the actions of the Dark Lord. (A/N: Lol – how many times have you heard that phrase – 'an urgent letter from the Ministry'?) Apparently, the Dark Lord had reached a point where he would be unstoppable. Apparently, he was on the lookout for the rest of the Evans family.

_Apparently, Lily's life is in danger again – as is her sister's. But – there is nothing I can do for that sister other than leave her to live with her aunt. But Voldemort is bound to find Lily… What can I possibly do?_

Dumbledore sighed – for probably the first time in his life – and picked up Lily's letter again. He read a couple of lines over again.

"I was wondering if you had any information that you could give to me – such as when we met as little kids – that might help. Sorry to ask you for such an unimportant thing when you're busy, it's just that I keep thinking about the whole thing and it would be a weight off of my back, and James', I'm sure, if we could know just a little bit about our family history."

Then, it clicked in Dumbledore's mind. Things usually didn't click for Dumbledore; they usual just came to him naturally. But in times of stress, it was helpful to wait for things to come to you rather than hunt for them yourself. When in the darkness, you prefer the light bulb to come to you rather than look for it yourself.

Why not send Lily _back? She could go back to live with the Potters – just as she did for two years after her parents died. He could explain to her that that was how she met James in the beginning. She had lived with him for a couple of weeks – instead of a couple of years – and therefore she had vivid memories of staying with him._

Hurriedly, Dumbledore pulled out a small sheet of parchment. He rummaged through the objects on his desk as he looked for a quill and a bottle of ink. Dipping the quill into the green ink, he headed the letter.

Dear Mr. William Potter –

I am sorry to a nuisance of you at such a time, especially when your job at the Ministry must be taking away a large amount of your time. However, I felt that I must look to you for yet another favor. I am sure you remember Miss Liliane Evans, especially since she had lived with you for two or so years after her parents had died. It is in reference to this incident that I am asking you for help once more.

As you must know, Voldemort has, apparently, reached the zenith of his reign over the Dark Side so far. Rumor has it that he is now looking for the rest of the Evans family – namely Lily herself. Therefore, I must ask of you if you are willing to take in this child once more. She and James have been acquainted – as they are both prefects, though of different houses – and they feel that they do, somehow, remember one another. I have justified their relationship by telling them that they are cousins. I do hope that you will not have a problem in my reasoning. And I greatly hope that you will allow Lily to stay with you during the summer holidays. Her sister will be provided for. It is Lily I am worried about.

One last request, before I end this letter, is that you do not let them know the truth about their true relationship. I shall tell Lily as close to the truth as possible, but I fear what may happen if they find out the truth. It may be good in some ways – but it may also be very disastrous to their welfare.

Sincerely,

Albus Dumbledore

Headmaster of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

Professor Dumbledore looked over the letter with satisfaction. He wasn't one for writing very eloquently, but he supposed it would have to do. He just hoped that William Potter would agree to his requests. He folded the letter and slipped it into an envelope. He neatly printed Mr. Potter's address on the cover, and walked out of his office.

*

"Rise and shine, Lily – honestly, wake _up!" Mickey squealed._

"Five more minutes…" Lily groaned in response.

"Ooh, Lily – not _again – and today we don't even have something to threaten you with to __make you wake up!" Lauren said huffily with her hands on her hips._

"Who's threatening who?" said Dani groggily, having only just woken up herself.

"Dani, what's that weird charm you used to do?" Mickey said, grinning.

Dani's eyes lit up as she said, "Oh – that charm – the one with the word that sounds like 'rainbow' in it?"

"Yeah, the one you practiced on me. I was sore all over for a week…" Lauren said, wrinkling her nose.

"Jeez, you three sure know how to wake a person up!" Lily said, shaking her head and shutting their voices out as she pressed her palms to her ears.

"Ha – it worked! We woke you up! Oh yeah – we are the _best!" Mickey said, jumping on Lily's bed making her bounce up and down._

"Aah – Mick – ey – stop – that – this – in – stant!" Lily squealed.

Apparently, Mickey didn't hear, so Lily grabbed her ankles instead, causing her to fall down on top of Lily with an awful bump. As if on cue, Laura jumped on top of them. To finish off, Dani sat on the very top.

"Ouch – grr, get off of me, will you?" Lily groaned with a slightly muffled voice. Her face was squashed against her pillow, after all.

"Um – maybe…" Dani said with a smile on her face.

"You've got to say the magic word first!" Mickey said, her eyes glinting.

"Oh, really – well, this should be interesting," Lauren said quietly. She knew Lily better than the other two, and it was no wonder that she was trying to get off of Mickey and as far away from the twins as possible.

"Okay then – _Corpus Hydrosio!" Lily yelled as she pulled out her wand. In an instant, both Mickey and Dani were sitting with their eyes wide open with shock, as if a wave had just passed over them. Indeed, they felt that way too, for they were both dripping wet – their blond hair plastered to the sides of their face and their pajamas stuck to their bodies._

"I'm all _wet! Honestly, Lily, couldn't you have thought of a better magic word to say, like, maybe, __please?" Dani shrieked. "I'm soaked!"_

"Well, will you get off of me, now?" Lily asked, as she tried to push the twins off.

"In a second – I just have one question for you," Mickey said with sudden inspiration.

"What's that?" Lily asked, as she finally succeeded in pushing them both off, much to Laura's amusement.

"Uh, we'll ask you later," Dani said, as she grabbed a towel from her trunk and started to dry out her hair.

"It's a pity you can't use Muggle appliances at Hogwarts. Hair dryers have got to be the most convenient inventions on the planet," Lily said, as she watched Dani and Mickey both struggle with their long hair and the small towels.

"Yeah, go ahead and rub it in," Mickey muttered as she rummaged in her trunk for a hair brush.

*

"James, did you tell her?" Sirius said excitedly at the Gryffindor table.

"Yes, and she asked me the same thing Remus asked you," James replied, trying to avoid talking on that specific subject.

"And what was that?" Sirius asked.

He reached over to pour himself some pumpkin juice. However, almost immediately, a childish laughter rang through the Great Hall, causing Sirius to drop the pitcher as soon as he had picked it up. The rest of the juice-covered Marauders were all laughing, but Sirius was too busy hiding under the table.

The four Ravenclaws had walked in, all laughing. Mickey and Dani seemed to be cracking up more than the others – for both had flushed cheeks, and were nearly doubled over with laughter. Lily and Lauren were laughing too, but not nearly so much as the twins. It seemed as though Lily was the one telling the joke – or whatever it was that they were laughing about.

As Lily grinned at her friends, she caught sight of James and his friends at the Gryffindor table. She was about to wave at them, but decided not to as she noticed the look on Sirius' face. Before she could wonder why all four of them were covered from head to toe in pumpkin juice – and apparently were unaware of it – Dani dragged her over to the Ravenclaw table.

"Lily, you can't be serious," Mickey said, clutching her sides as if she were going to burst.

"I told you already – I'm serious about Sirius liking you – two," Lily said, grinning again. "James told me that _twice, already," she added hastily as she sat down._

"Oh, I see. _James told you, did he?" Dani asked, raising an eyebrow at her redhead friend._

"Yes – but what does that have to do with anything?" Lily asked, slightly confused.

"Oh – nothing…" the twins said in chorus.

Lily narrowed her eyes at them. None of the three said anything more on the topic, however, and so Lily sighed and started to eat her breakfast. She glanced once or twice at the Gryffindor table, but apparently, the Marauders had cleaned up their mess and were continuing to eat. Lily smiled as she saw Sirius look their way in search of the twins.

"Lily, will you help me with Arithmancy?" Lauren asked.

"You want _me to help __you in __Arithmancy?" Lily asked in shock._

Lily may be the prefect out of the four, but Lauren was easily better at Arithmancy than Lily. Lily had only become a prefect on account for her excellent Charms and Defense grades. Those were her best and favorite subjects, though she wasn't very interested in taking up a job relating to either subject.

"Well, yeah – you seemed to understand whatever it was that Junker said. I was too busy – uh – doing other things…" Lauren muttered.

"Oh, really – and what might those things be?" Lily inquired suspiciously.

"I was working on my project for Advanced Transfiguration," Lauren said quickly, knowing Lily couldn't argue with that; Lily didn't take Advanced Transfiguration, and therefore had no proof that Lauren was lying.

"Oh, alright, I'll help you, but only after I've finished my own homework. Weekends can be so boring, sometimes, can't they?" Lily said, picking at the food on her plate.

"You didn't say that yesterday when you were with James," Dani said, grinning at her.

Lily rolled her eyes and answered, "Don't even go there."

"Come on, Lily – first, you don't' wake up, and now you're not even eating breakfast!" Mickey said.

She started piling more food on her plate, but Lily just pushed it away. Lauren picked up a spoonful of food from Lily's plate and started trying to feed her.

"Come on, Lils – open wide, now. Come _on, let the broomstick fly through the tunnel…" she muttered teasingly._

"Lauren, I _told you! I'm not hungry! Stop treating me as though I'm a baby!" Lily shrieked. She clamed down a little and said, "I think I'll just go for a walk or something – around the grounds. I'll work up the appetite…"_

Lily walked away before any of her friends could stop her and ran out. She hadn't lied to them. But at the same time, she hadn't told them all of the truth. She hadn't yet told them anything about her dreams and memories – for Lily had been dreaming a lot too. Just last night, she had dreamt once more about the grand mansion and the strange black-haired boy…

Lily stopped in her tracks. Someone had called her name. She shut her eyes and muttered to herself, "No – this isn't a dream… this isn't a dream…"

She turned around slowly and opened her eyes. Almost immediately, she let out a sigh of relief. It was just Professor Dumbledore. Lily smiled at him expectantly. She thought he'd have an answer to her letter, but she was soon to find out that she was wrong.

"Ah, Miss Evans, just the young lady I was looking for," he said, smiling at her.

"Oh, Professor Dumbledore, did you –"

"Will you please see me in my office, Miss Evans – immediately?" he said, cutting her off.

"Oh, okay, Professor – um, if you say so…" Lily muttered. Did Professor Dumbledore think that their past was so secret that they had to talk about it in his office?

*

A/N: Sorry that was so short – but we – that is, I – meaning, KoolKitty – was a bit short on creativity this time. But we hope you'll review all the same!


	8. Chapter Eight

A/N: As always, we enjoyed reading the reviews; thanks!

                                                          *

Lily made her way to Dumbledore's office slowly. She wanted to put the pieces of her past together, but then again, she was worried. It might be something she did not want to hear; if Dumbledore wanted to talk in private...She approached his door and tentatively knocked. 

"Come on in, Miss Evans." his voice rang out, muffled behind the door. 

She sighed and stepped through, turning to face him and smiling slightly. "Thanks for taking the time to answer my question, Professor. I've been wondering what-"

"Miss Evans," he broke in, "I'm not sure that I have much to tell you about your past. I did, however, wish to tell you about something in your future."

"What?" Lily asked, confused. 

"Well, I have heard...rumors...about the Dark Lord. He's on the move, though I thought he had died out. But in any case, he's looking for you, Lily. I decided that you will not be safe with your aunt and uncle this summer, and have made plans for you to stay with the Potters-"

"James Potter's house?" she was bewildered. Stay at _his home?_

"Yes, Miss Evans. Since you're cousins I thought it would be alright. And Mr. Potter is an Auror. In the mean time, you will be here at Hogwarts, and I'll do everything in my power to keep you safe." he finished, looking as sincere as he could manage.

"Er-" Lily started, not knowing quite what to say. "I, well, um...thanks." The Headmaster simply smiled at her, a bit sadly.

She rose from her chair and turned to leave, but then stopped. Facing him again, her hands felt the top of the chair in front of her. "Professor? I'm still wondering about my past, though. You haven't told me anything and...well..."

"I know it might seem a little...odd, Miss Evans. But I assure you that you and James are cousins and must have met at a family reunion as little kids. Who knows, you may have even been to the Potter's house. But as your uncle's profession as an Auror grew more intense, I believe he drew back from family outings. I think he felt that he might be endangering the rest of his family. But whatever the case, it was meant for you and James to meet each other again at Hogwarts, I'm sure of that. So don't worry, everything's been taken care of and you'll be staying with James this summer." he sighed, seeing that his words had done anything but put her at ease. _This girl doesn't give up easily. She's going to dig up everything she can on the subject. And if she finds the truth... "Have a good day, Lily."_

She nodded, as if to say, you too, but the words failed her. She left the room in a flash, knowing that there had to be something that Dumbledore wasn't telling her-them- otherwise the lingering feeling that she had acquired would have left.

"Well that wasn't what I had hoped…" she mumbled while hurrying through the halls. Abruptly, she hit something with an 'ouch' and became tangled, dropping to the floor. She grunted and lifted herself off, with her arm, of the lump she had landed on.

"James!" she threw herself backwards, off of him. He grunted, and then laughed. 

"Well, I was looking for you Lily, but I didn't think I'd find you that way."

"James, I have something to tell- What? Why were you looking for me?"

"Well…er- not _here." He said, laughing as he realized that they were sitting on the floor, in the middle of the corridor. _

"Alright then, where?" she replied, lending him a hand to get to his feet. 

"Let's go to the Marauder's room." He rushed off down to the right, glancing back to see that she was following.

She caught up with him. "Don't your friends get annoyed that you always take me to their room?"

"No. It's my room too, and they like you. It isn't as if you've told the whole school about it, so it doesn't matter. If I showed you some of our…projects," he cleared his throat deliberately, "that would be a different story."

"Er- okay." Lily smiled and tousled his already sticking up hair. He grunted.

They walked into the room, having given the password, and dropped into the comfortable chairs.

"Now- you first." Lily said.

"No- go ahead." 

"Okay, well…I just finished talking to Dumbledore. He said that Voldemort is getting stronger and he's, um…looking for me specifically. He was looking for someplace where I'd be safe for the summer and…You're my cousin and all and your dad's an Auror, so he told me that I'm staying at your house for the summer." She finished quickly, watching his expression.  
  
He paused, surprised. "That's cool Lily. I'm sure it'll be fun at my house, I mean, I can show you around and we'll find stuff to do. I-"

"James," Lily cut in, "you're missing the point. Doesn't it feel like something's missing to you? Doesn't it feel like there's something we don't know? Don't you remember? Don't you have weird dreams? Don't you-"

"Whoa. Slow down, Lily. One question at a time." He said softly. 

"I'm sorry James. I just don't understand. It's taking over my life- the wondering, I mean. I can't concentrate. I have weird dreams and I don't know what to do about it. I asked Dumbledore…but that didn't help as much as I had hoped."  
  


"I do wonder." He replied. 

"What?"

"I do wonder. I've been having weird dreams too. I don't understand it and I don't know if I should…but let's forget about it anyway. We're cousins and let's just take advantage of that and have some fun. K?"

She smiled, desperately trying to erase her thoughts. _My mind doesn't work when I want it to, but when I want to turn it off it does anything but that. "Okay, James." But she knew that it wasn't going to happen. She was going to learn the truth if it killed her._

                                                *

James walked in the Gryffindor common room confused. So he wasn't going crazy. Lily had been having odd dreams too. _Not as if it matters anyway. We decided to forget about it. It doesn't mean anything. _

But then, he _was going crazy. He thought back to when Lily had run into him. She had looked…attractive. __Gross! She's your cousin__, James. This is sick, this is sick… He wanted to hurt himself. Thinking about things like…that. Well, when you were related to the girl, in any case…_

"What's up Prongs?" he heard Remus ask from the side of the room. The other two Marauders were crowded around him, grinning. 

"Nothing." James mumbled in reply, still angry with himself.

"Oh look- isn't it cute. Prongs is in a bad mood. What, couldn't find Lily, could we?" Sirius teased.  
  
"Actually, Padfoot, I ran into her. Literally. But I never got to say anything about what I wanted to…she talked to Dumbledore and she's staying at my house this summer and…" he trailed off, not wanting to explain his feelings to them. Or his dreams or memories. They'd laugh at him.

"But you like that, don't you? You'll have Lily to talk to all summer." Remus said cheerfully.

"Yeah, I guess so." But he _was happy. Summers were usually boring, but with Lily there for company…it might be pretty interesting._

"So, you still haven't explained why you're acting like you have a wedgie."

James rolled his eyes. "Nothing's wrong. You're just annoying." He lied, not wanting to tell them that he was disgusted with himself or why.

                                                *

Lily walked into her dorm to find the twins and Lauren sitting on their beds. 

"It's Lily!" Mikey squealed, bouncing on her bed.

"Yes, it's me. Why, what're you so happy about?" 

"Where have you been?"

"With James?" 

"What did he say about Sirius?"

"Nothing, you annoying little…" she trailed off, realizing that James _had wanted to tell her something. But she had been too busy trying to be enlightening to- "Ouch!" she yelped as a pillow hit her in the face, causing it to be a muffled yell. Lily bent over to pick the pillow up, dodging another. "Take that!" she yelled, heaving it at Dani._

"Guys! Hey!" Lauren yelled, trying to get their attention. A pillow was sent flying at her. She laughed and decided that it was useless. She threw the pillow away and pointed at the door.

James was standing there, watching them with an amused grin. Lily turned around and blushed slightly, laughing. "Er- need something, James?" The twins giggled.

"Yeah...I wanted to talk to you about, well, the twins and Sirius." He glanced over at them while they squealed in delight.

  
Lauren was laughing and threw another pillow at them. Lily smoothed her red hair, which was sticking up in all directions. "Uh, okay. Should we talk outside?" she glanced at Mickey and Dani, who shook their heads furiously. 

"Guess we should." James replied, laughing too. He picked up a pillow that had landed at his feet and tossed it to Lily, who threw it at Lauren. 

"What did I do?" Lauren's amused voice followed her out the door.

Lily closed the door behind them. She heard a thump, and pulled James' sleeve, mumbling, "They'll be listening at the door, so we should probably move down the hall a bit."

He laughed again. "I didn't know your friends were so hyper." 

"Oh, well, you know. Guess I'm just used to it." She smiled and stopped. "Okay, now what?"  
  


"Well, I wanted to tell you what Sirius told me. I asked him which one he wanted to go out with and he said he didn't know. Something about not knowing them well enough to choose. I don't think he can even tell them apart…neither can I, for that matter." James replied quickly.

"So…what? Does he want to spend a little time with one, and then the other, without us telling him which is which, and then choose?"

"Yeah, I guess." 

"Doesn't it seem a bit silly to you?" Lily said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah, but think about it. It's Sirius…and then from what I've seen of the twins…"

"Good point."

"So will that work for them?"

Lily laughed. "Do you even need to ask? They'll be ecstatic. Though I don't understand why…I like to choose the guy I go out with more carefully."

"Is that right?" James teased. "Me too."

Lily laughed and decided to tease him back. "So you like to choose the guys you go out with carefully too?" 

"Ye- No!" he turned red, but she had already run off towards her dorm. "That wasn't funny!" he yelled after her, grinning.

                                                          *

          Lily walked back into her dorm out of breath, hitting the twins in the head with the door on her way in. "When _will you learn?" she shook her head. Mickey rubbed hers and scrambled off of the floor, while Dani closed the door._

"What did he say??" they both asked in unison.

"Oh, nothing…" Lily trailed off casually, exchanging a grin with Lauren while she dropped onto her bed.

Dani pulled out her wand and ran a hand over it. "You know, I've been reading up on curses. There was this particularly interesting one that I wanted to test out and…"

"Alright!" Lily said, sitting up and smiling. She told them exactly what James had told her.

Lauren had a weird look on her face as Lily finished, wondering what sort of idea that was. But the twins were dancing around with each other. "When?" they asked excitedly.

"I dunno. I'll have to ask James." 

Lauren snickered, but the twins each grabbed one of Lily's arms and pulled her off the bed, opening the door and pushing her out.

"Well then go find him!" Dani said loudly, shutting the door.

                                                          *

A/N: Sorry I couldn't make it a bit longer, but my computer broke down and since it's been awhile I (Snoopy511- if you're wondering why I haven't updated anything in forever) thought I- we- should go ahead and get the next chapter up. Thanks for the reviews and I'll shut up now ;)


	9. Chapter Nine

A/N: We both love reviews! So please give us _lots! Thank you – and now, before KoolKitty gets __too carried away, here's the next chapter!_

*

A couple of minutes later, Lily was standing by herself in one of the many hallways of the Hogwarts castle. She had been kicked out of her own Common Room by her own friends, and had been sent in search of James. She had gone off on her own, after that, until she realized that she had never been to the Gryffindor Common Room, and therefore had no idea where it was. She had wandered around for a few minutes until she had to concede that she was well and truly lost.

"This is just great," Lily muttered to herself.

"And why is that?" came a voice behind her.

"Who's that?"

"Oh, has Little Miss Muffet lost her tuffet?" called the same mocking voice.

"If you don't show yourself, I swear I'm going to call Professor Dumbledore!" Lily shrieked.

"There's no reason to get angry, Little Miss Tiger Lily. I was only playing with you," said the creature, as he descended from his hiding place in the ceiling.

"Peeves, what are you doing here?" Lily said, groaning.

It was one thing to be lost; it was quite another to be lost with the most annoying poltergeist in the world hovering above you ready to make fun of you or get you into trouble – or both.

"I know something you don't know. I know something you don't know – ha!" he said, mocking her.

"Oh, really – and what might that be?" Lily asked sarcastically.

"I know all about you and that mystical cousin of yours!" Peeves squealed, bouncing about from one wall to the other.

"Who – James – oh, I say, you couldn't possibly know what Dumbledore's keeping secret, could you?" Lily asked, excitedly.

"Aye, I might, now, mightn't I? But I'm not going to tell _you!" he cackled as he rolled away in the air._

"Oh, drat, Peeves, you're so awful! Can't you tell me? At least give me a hint…" Lily begged him.

"No, you're too mean!" he hissed.

"No, you're the one who's mean! But tell me, Peeves!" Lily said, exasperated.

"I'm not saying anything unless you are nice! If you give me that toffee in your pocket I'll say something," he said, giving her a sneaky side-glance.

Lily dived deep into her pocket and pulled out a half-eaten, melted caramel-chocolate. She wasn't quite sure how long it had been there, but she was happy to give it to Peeves in exchange for the secret.

"There – now _tell me!" she shrieked._

"Something – ha – I told you if you give it to me _I'll say something! Ha – now shoo – go away! Let me eat in peace!" he said, munching greedily on the moldy candy._

"Ooh, you're evil, Peeves! I absolutely hate you!" Lily yelled. "I'm telling the Bloody Baron on you!"

Peeves stopped in mid air. He tried to speak, but his teeth were stuck together with the caramel. He wrenched them apart so he could speak.

"Now, I didn't do anything to you! You're cruel, you are!" he whined.

"Oh, Bloody Baron…" Lily called.

With a crap like a whip, Peeves had disappeared into thin air, toffee and all.

"Well, that takes care of that," Lily said, wiping her chocolaty hands on her robes.

"Lily, is that you?"

"James, you sure have a knack for finding me whenever I'm looking for you!" Lily exclaimed, as she whirled around to find him standing there.

"Yes, well, I have my ways," he said, winking.

"I'm sure you do," Lily said, rolling her eyes.

"Anyway, I was wondering, there's a Hogsmeade weekend coming up, and the four of us are going. Would you guys like to come with us?" James asked.

"Us – with you – well, why not? I don't think they'll mind. To tell you the truth, I'm sure they'll look forward to it," Lily said shrugging.

"And you –" James started.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Lily asked, smiling.

"Will you look forward to meeting up with us too?"

"I'll think about it," Lily said, grinning now.

"You're cruel, you know that?"

"It's a gift," Lily said, sighing. "Now, come on. I had to ask you something too, you know."

*

"Dani, did Davie ever say anything about Quidditch practice?" Mickey asked her sister as she stared out of the window.

Lily still hadn't come back from visiting James, and Lauren was working on her Care of Magical Creatures project. Dani and Mickey were just lazing around, reading, and talking.

"Um, I don't know. He might have said something – why?"

"Oh, I was just wondering, seeing that the _rest of the team is out there!" Mickey yelled._

Dani jumped up as she said, "Oh shit, you're kidding me!"

"No, I'm not! Dan we have to run!"

"Where are you two off to?" Lauren asked.

"We're going to practice! We'll catch you later, okay? Bye Lauren – bye Lils!" they said together as they ran out of the Common Room.

"Well, that was a fast exit," Lily said, climbing in after they left.

"Lily, how'd it go? Did you find him?" Lauren asked, pushing her textbook away.

"Oh yeah, I found him, alright. Or rather, he found _me, as usual. It's strange. If I'm ever looking for him, I don't find him. He finds me. It's really strange," Lily said, sitting down next to Lauren._

"Well, don't worry about it. Knowing them, they've probably invented some strange map or something that let's them know where everyone in the castle is or some such thing like that," Lauren said, hitting the nail on the head without even knowing it.

"What are you working on?"

"Care of Magical Creatures – I have absolutely no idea why I opted for it. Advanced Transfiguration is starting to sound pretty good, round about now. It's a pity it's too late to switch."

"Advanced Transfiguration…" Lily groaned.

"Sorry, Lils, not everyone hates it, you know," Lauren said, smiling.

"I know. Anyway, James wants the four of us to meet up with him next weekend. It's a Hogsmeade weekend, and he wants all _eight of us to go together," Lily said excitedly._

"Oh, that would be awesome!" Lauren exclaimed, her eyes shining.

"Wouldn't it? I can't wait to hear what _they say," Lily said, referring to the twins._

"That would be _hilarious!"_

"Where did they go, anyway?" Lily asked.

"They have Quidditch practice. From the looks of it, they didn't know about it, so they're probably running as fast as they can to meet up with the rest of their team before Davie notices that they're not there," Lauren said.

"Well, it's not the first time it's happened," Lily said.

"And it won't be the last."

"Yeah, probably not…" Lily trailed off.

She got up and went up to the window and looked out to the grounds. She sighed deeply not really seeing anything, but just thinking. She wasn't sure about what she was doing. She wasn't even sure _what she was doing – or why it was making her uneasy._

"Lily, what's wrong? You've been acting kind of strange lately," Lauren said, walking up behind her.

"Lauren, honestly, ever since the beginning of the school year you've been telling me nothing else except that something's wrong with me. Just leave me alone. There's been too much happening in too short of a time. I need some time on my own to sort everything out. It all just doesn't make sense," Lily said, pushing her away and running off to their dorm.

"Lily, I'm only trying to help!" Lauren called after her.

But Lily didn't listen. Lauren sighed and turned back to her homework. It wasn't often that Lily had one of her moods, but when she did, it was best to leave her to her own devices. Lily could be pretty hot-tempered if she felt like it.

*

"So, the two Foyers twins decided to come to practice; did they?" teased Davie, the Ravenclaw Quidditch Team Captain.

"Put a sock in it, Wood," they said together. (A/N: Yes, Davie Wood is Oliver Wood's dad. The Wood family has a Quidditch Captain Legacy, okay?)

"Get on up there, already. It's no good practicing beating and chasing if there's no Seeker or Keeper," he said to them.

"Yes, mother," Mickey said, sighing.

"_Oy, you there, if I hear another remark like that and I'll make you do laps __on foot," he said, glaring._

"You sound like one of those Muggle coaches Lily was talking about," Dani said, grinning.

"You're pushing it," Davie said through gritted teeth.

"Come on, Dani."

Quidditch practice was usually uneventful. They never did anything new, though every now and again Davie would come up with what he thought was an unimaginably novel plan to win the Cup – which invariably didn't work. The Gryffindor team was unbeatable by all the other teams, except perhaps the Slytherins on a bad day. The team would have given up playing altogether if it hadn't been for their love of flying.

"Hey, Wood, when's the first match, anyway?" one of the Chasers called as he passed the Quaffle to Davie.

"In two months," he answered coolly, his American accent getting the better of him.

"Then why are we practicing already?" Mickey blurted out.

"Do you want to beat those redcoats or not?"

"Watch it, Callaghan. Just because you're not British doesn't mean we don't take offense," said a Beater, glaring.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like _that," he said apologetically._

(A/N: For those of you who don't get that, I'm referring to the whole thing with the British military – red coats – when they colonized America…)

"Sure you didn't – come on, we never know when our games are till the day before," Dani whined, tugging on his sleeve.

"Dani, I –"

"She's right, Davie. Come on, do us all a favor," Mickey said, smiling at him.

Mickey may have been a tomboy, not unlike her twin, but she had a certain charm which her sister lacked, and which was invaluable when trying to wheedle things out of the rest of their Quidditch team. Needless to say, the rest of the team was boys.

"Alright, what do you want me to do?" he said, rolling his eyes.

"Call off the practice," the Beaters said together.

"No, that wouldn't do any good," Dani said grinning evilly.

"Yeah, you need to do something really good," Mickey said, her eyes glinting.

"Why did I ever become Quidditch Captain?" Davie muttered to himself.

*

"Lily, are you in there?" Lauren asked cautiously, as she pushed the door to their dormitory open.

Lily was lying on her bed with the navy hangings of her four poster bed pulled tightly together. She shut her eyes and sighed deeply, pretending to be asleep. She tried nervously to cover up the wet patch on her pillow from her tears, but she was making too much noise and gave it up.

"Lily, are you asleep?"

_What does she think? Honestly, I never knew my friends were such a bunch of idiots…_

"Lily, we've got to go for lunch. Are you coming or not?"

_She knows me too well. But not well enough to know that I'm definitely not__ coming._

"Lily, I don't know about you, but I'm going. Dani and Mickey came back about half-an-hour ago, but I haven't told them anything about Hogsmeade yet. I thought you might want to tell them what James planned," Lauren called.

Lily smiled to herself as she heard the twins respond to what they had been overhearing. They were listening intently to what Lauren had to say, no doubt.

"What about James and Hogsmeade?"

_Will she ever learn that I'm not about to fall bait to a little bit of bribing? Can't she take a hint that I'm not coming?_

"I'm going, Lily."

_It's about time._

She heard the door close quietly. Lily let out a sigh of relief. She didn't like lying to her friends, but it could get annoying when they didn't know when to give her a break. For the last forty-five minutes, Lily had been speculating about everything that had happened in the last few weeks – ever since she had found out that James was her cousin.

Was he really her cousin? She didn't expect Dumbledore to lie to her, but it was always possible that he didn't know the truth, either, right? And was she doing the right thing by mixing with him and his friends? For the last four years, she had attended Hogwarts thinking that she was the only one with magical blood in her family. If James had been her cousin, surely his father would have known about her, right? Dumbledore would have certainly told them before. And they didn't look anything alike. And in order for her to truly _be related to the Potters, her parents would have had to have had more siblings, and her mother had only had one sister, Aunt Stacy, and her father had been an only child. There was no way that she could possibly be related to them – unless…_

Lily sat bolt upright on her bed, still staring at the hangings around her bed. Was it possible that she was James' _sister, instead of his __cousin?_

_No, of course not, that's insane. Your parents are dead, and James still has a dad and a mom – or, well, maybe a mom… he never talks about her… Oh, but what if we had the same mom__, but different dads? That would explain a lot… His mom may be dead, after all – and so is mine. I've just lost my dad. That's the only difference. Oh, this is too confusing. There's got to be some way to figure this all out._

Lily pondered these thoughts for some more time. Eventually, she came to the conclusion that she might as well wait until she went to their house over the summer. If the truth didn't come out then, there probably was no truth to look for, anyway. At least, then she'd be able to find out whether or not James was the little boy in her dreams or not.

*

"So, what do you all want to do this weekend?" Remus asked.

The Marauders were sitting in their Common Room, lounging around, extremely bored, yet too tired to be anything more than just talk.

"Oh, sorry, did I not tell you all, yet? Well, I thought since there's a Hogsmeade weekend on Saturday, the four of us should go with Lily and her friends. You three don't mind, do you?" James asked slowly.

"No, it's fine with us. I just wish you'd let us know a little more in advance," Sirius said, shrugging.

"Sorry, I only just thought of it when I ran into her again today."

"You seem to be doing a lot of that."

"What?" James asked, confused.

"He means that you're running into her a lot. Trust Sirius to come up with a statement that random," Remus explained.

"What's your point?" James said, studying his friend.

"Nothing, I just made a random statement, like Moony said."

"Is there something you guys want to talk to me about?"

"No, Prongs, but is there anything you want to talk to us about?" Peter asked in his squeaky voice.

"Guys, what's going on?" James asked, getting up and looking around at them.

"Never mind, they're just being stupid," Remus said, looking sharply at Sirius.

"Is something wrong?" James asked again, quieter this time.

"Well, Prongs, it's like this…"

*

"Lauren, is that you?" Lily croaked as she heard the door to their dorm open once more.

Lily glanced at her watch. It was six in the afternoon, and she was hungry. She hadn't eaten since breakfast, and that had been nearly twelve hours ago.

"No, it's me – Dani," Dani said, as she walked in and pulled the hangings around Lily's bed apart. "Have you been crying?" she asked in disbelief.

"Of course, not – I just yawned. You know how your eyes water when you yawn – it's like that," Lily said quickly, wiping her eyes dry. "Um, do you think it's too late to get something to eat?"

"Yeah, but if you wait a couple more hours we can go down for dinner a bit early," she said, brushing Lily's hair out of her face.

"Yeah, I guess I'll have to wait. I say, Dani, when's Lauren's birthday?" Lily said suddenly.

"It's the first of October, but there are still a couple of weeks. Why – haven't you gotten her a present yet?"

"No, I haven't. I usually get them over the summer, but I didn't have any time last one. Petunia was actually home and Aunt Stacy insisted on having us all home together all of the time. That's why I couldn't come to your house, remember?"

"Well, you can get her present when we go to Hogsmeade, I guess," Dani said, shrugging.

Dani sat down next to Lily. They looked straight ahead, not speaking for a while. Then, Lily decided that she might as well tell her friends everything that was bothering her.

"Dani, are you sure I'm doing the right thing?" Lily asked quietly.

"I don't know, Lily. I don't know. You'll have to figure that out by yourself. Come on, let's go," Dani said, putting her arm around Lily's shoulders.

*

"James, wake up, James – look outside! It's snowing!" Sirius called excitedly.

"Padfoot, it's three in the morning…" James groaned, as he rolled over in his bed to look at his best friend.

Many weeks had passed by since the day when Dumbledore had made the plans for Lily to go to the Potters' over the summer. Winter was steadily approaching, and by the looks of it, the Hogwarts students were ready for their first taste of winter that year.

"So what – early to bed early to rise – it's your own fault that you stayed up so late to play Exploding Snap with Remus!" Sirius scolded.

"I never thought I'd see the day when _Sirius Black lectured me about good behavior…" James muttered._

"I heard that," he replied, grinning.

"Yeah, whatever – now, what's this you said about snow?" James asked, getting up and walking over to the window in his boxers.

"You're such a big baby," Sirius teased when he saw James' face light up with a big cheery smile.

"Shut up. You're the one who woke up to see the snow, not me."

"Come on, let's go outside and have some fun," Sirius suggested.

He ran out of the dorm before James could stop him, and so James had no choice but to follow him out. In a couple of minutes, they were both outside of the castle, making snowballs and indulging in their enjoyment.

"You know," James started, as he gasped for breath in the thin, cold, air. "If anyone looks outside and sees two Gryffindor prefects playing in the snow before we're even supposed to be awake, they're probably going to think the whole House is nothing but a bunch of loonies."

"James, have you ever considered the fact that we _are a bunch of loonies?" Sirius asked, trying hard to keep from laughing._

James answered him by throwing a clump of snow into his face. Thus, they continued their fight. What they didn't know, however, was that people were doing exactly what they had feared, fifty feet above them.

"Lily, look at this," Mickey whispered.

"Mickey, I understand that you often have the urgent need to dispose of certain biological wastes in the middle of the night, but can you please refrain from disturbing me every time you do so?" Lily shrieked, pummeling Mickey with a pillow.

"Lily, we've been through the pillow thing already. Now come here. I want to show you something…"

Lily sighed and reckoned that she might as well see what Mickey was on about. She was not about to be able to go back to sleep now anyway. She walked up to the window where Mickey was standing and in an instant she burst out laughing.

"So, I'm guessing those two black-haired idiots are James and Sirius?" Mickey asked, grinning.

"Who else do you think would act like that? Of course, it's them!" Lily said, practically rolling on the floor laughing.

"What's the racket for?" Lauren asked groggily as she sat up and rubbed her eyes, looking in their direction.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't realize I was disturbing your beauty sleep," Lily smirked.

"Lily, honestly, what is wrong with you?"

"Nothing, I just felt like saying that," Lily said, smiling at her, removing all of Lauren's unease.

"Now, will you two please go back to bed?" Lauren asked them.

"Well, Dani didn't wake up," Mickey said, shrugging.

"You know what Dani's like when it comes to sleep! Now please, calm down and go back to sleep!"

"No, we'll do better than that," Lily said, winking at Mickey, who caught on quickly.

"Yeah, we're going to snow fight too!"

The two girls ran out of their dorm, much the way that James and Sirius had earlier. Thankfully, they had had enough sense to dress warmly beforehand, unlike the two boys who had run out with only pajamas. (A/N: At least, they hadn't gone out in their boxers! Hehe, I have a perverse mind, sorry…)

"Grr…" Lauren groaned as she fell back and hit the pillow with her head making a soft 'thump'. "Teenagers…" she muttered to herself.

*

"Well, Sirius, would you look at what the dogs dragged out," James said, stopping to watch Lily and Dani walk out towards them.

Lily was carefully walking through the snow, trying hard not to get too wet, whereas Dani was very unladylike as she ran through the snow, tripping a couple of times in her attempt to reach them first. 

"I thought the saying was look at what the cat dragged in?" Lily said, as she dodged a snowball that Sirius had flung her way.

James shrugged as he went back to playing with the snow. Lily and Dani exchanged glances and ran off a few feet away from them, where they began to play their own snow games. (A/N: Strange – have you ever heard of snow games before? I haven't…)

"What are you two doing?" Sirius asked after a while of watching them and dodging James' snowballs at the same time.

"We're making a snowman!" they said together cheerfully.

"You two are acting like first years!" James exclaimed.

"Oh really, and what about you – you don't think snow ball fights are childish?" Lily asked, glaring with her hands on her hips.

"Of course not, they're highly intuitive and they require a certain amount of strategic logic in order to participate," Sirius said, backing up his best friend.

Lily and Dani exchanged glances once more. Lily winked and Dani nodded. Then, while Dani went back to working with their snowman, Lily refuted in their own defense.

"I don't know about logic, but you certainly need some amount of knowledge of Physical science in order to know exactly _how to balance giant snowballs on top of one another such that they won't collapse or roll away. I doubt either of __you could do that!" she argued._

"Well, be as that may –" James began, but Dani cut him off.

"Lily, can you help me a little over here?" she asked, her eyes shining.

"Sure, you take that side…" Lily muttered.

James and Sirius watched amusedly as they both pulled out their wands and muttered a quick spell. They had no idea what the girls were doing, but as soon as they found the mound of snow floating towards them, they decided that it would probably be smart to run.

"James, run – I said run!"

"What the –"

"Lily, make it follow them! Charm it; we can't use a Banishing Charm for that long!" Dani said, supporting her aching arm.

"I'll try…" Lily muttered.

She racked her brains for an incantation to make it follow them. As soon as she remembered it, she whispered it and watched as a thin pink beam of light shot out of her wand and hit the snowball. She then pointed her wands at James and Sirius and muttered a different one, and a blue beam shot out. She grinned to herself as she saw the mound of snow fly after them, making them run around like madmen.

"Lily, remind me again why you became a prefect?"

"Shut up. I got good grades. That's why. There's nothing else to it. You don't be a prat and tell on me, though, okay?" Lily said, suddenly slightly worried.

"Jeez, Lily, what do you take me for – a tattle tale?" Dani groaned.

"Well, you never know…"

*

"Stop prodding me, Dani!" Mickey groaned as she slumped in her seat at the Ravenclaw table.

"Well, it's not my fault if you fall asleep in your porridge!" Dani exclaimed as she looked away.

"Well, it's not my fault I didn't get enough sleep last night," Mickey argued back.

"Yes, it is. _I didn't make you go out and bewitch snowballs to chase boys around the castle grounds."_

"But I didn't make me do it either."

"Put a sock in it, you two. You're not getting anywhere with that argument, so you might as well give up on it," Lauren said wisely.

The twins glared at each other. Then, they turned to glare at Lauren and stick their tongues out at her. They made Lily feel as though she was seeing double, having the two look-alikes both move and talk in synchronization. She laughed at them.

"What?" they said together again.

"Nothing, it's just funny to see both of you moving and speaking at the same time," Lily said, smiling at them.

"Well –" they both began again, but they were cut off by the sudden arrival of the owls.

Lily looked up and smiled again. She had seen this happen nearly everyday of the last four years, but she still enjoyed watching all of the owls soar through the air, just a few feet above their heads, looking around for the addressee of the packages or letters in their clutches. Lily didn't have an owl for she rarely got letters from anyone else except for Lauren and the twins, and they had their own owls. Yet, this morning, to her surprise, she saw an owl, with plumage so dark it was nearly black, soar towards her. It dropped a small note beside her plate. She looked at it for a moment; it took her a while to register that she had actually been sent a letter. Then, shaking herself back into reality, she picked it up and read it quickly. She let a smile appear on her face.

"What is it?" Lauren asked, seeing that Lily was happy about something.

"It's James. Apparently, his father, my – my uncle, wants to know if I would like to go to their house for the winter, too," Lily said, grinning.

"And what are you going to say back?" Dani asked.

"I don't know. I'll have to ask Aunt Stacy."

"Oh, honestly, Lily, she'll say yes," Mickey said exasperatedly.

"But, she thinks that –"

"Really, Lily, do you always have to listen to what _she thinks? You said yourself last year that you wanted to make your own decisions for a change!" Lauren said, rolling her eyes._

"You're fifteen-years-old, Lily. You can decide for yourself. You don't _have to ask her!" Dani said._

"Lily, think on your own. Don't make others do it for you," Mickey said softly.

Lily looked at the three of them, slightly confused. Had something been going on with them, unknown to her? Why were they all like this today?

"I – oh, alright, I'll write her and say that I won't be coming home for Christmas. I won't tell her why, though. She might not like it. I'll just say that I wanted to – that I wanted to spend time with some – friends," Lily said, shrugging.

"Well, you might want to tell James, too, you know," Mickey said, smiling and pointing at James' owl, which was still there, obviously waiting for her response.

Lily smiled and pulled the note towards her once more. She flipped it over and on the back wrote one word in her neat print, "Yes." She handed it back to the owl, which took it in his beak and soared off with it, back to the Gryffindor table. Lily followed it along with her eyes to see it drop it into James' hands. He glanced at it and looked up, catching her looking at him. They smiled.

"Lily, I don't understand you, sometimes."

"Shut it, you," Lily said, turning around to face them again.

She poured herself a glass of pumpkin juice and grabbed Lauren's copy of the Daily Prophet from her hands and read it, a smile just barely noticeable on her face.

*

"Now, just because I'm not going to be here or at home for Christmas doesn't mean you're going to get away with not getting my a present!"

It was the last day of school before the Christmas vacation. Lily had finished packing her trunk and was sitting on it in an attempt to make it shut. She let out a shriek just as it shut with a bang.

"Well, just because you're going to be enjoying yourself with your cousin doesn't mean you can forget about us!" Lauren said, pulling her into a tight hug.

"Lauren, I – can't – breathe…" Lily gasped.

"Sorry, well, Happy Christmas, Lily – and don't forget to tell us about James and his dad and whatnot when you come back, okay?" (A/N: Hmm… I think I've started to say the word 'whatnot' a lot lately… and in case you're wondering, yes, it's one word.)

"Bye, Lauren – Dani – Mickey!" she said as she ran out of the dorm.

*

"Ready to go, Lily?" James asked, smiling.

"Yep, oh, no, hang on a second…" Lily muttered as she turned around and rummaged through her book bag.

She pulled out a book and a pencil, sighed with relief and put it back in there. She looked back at him, grinned, and said she was ready.

"Okay, then…"

*

(A/N: Sorry these scenes are so short, but I didn't want to go into too much detail and make you guys all bored. I apologize if it got kind of confusing or a little awkward.)

"Dad, we're over here!" James called as he waved to a tall man just entering the King's Cross Station.

As he turned to smile at them, Lily felt a strange familiarity, a connection or a bond, with this man. James was like a carbon copy of him. Possibly, the only difference between the two was their eyes and their voices. Mr. Potter had a deep, warm, fatherly voice, while James' was more playful and mischievous. But either way, they both made her feel strangely comfortable around them.

"It's good to see you again, Lils," Mr. Potter said, smiling at her.

Lils – how did he know that was her nickname? But Lily couldn't dwell on that for long. Mr. Potter was too – nice. Lily smiled up at him as he took her trunk and led them to their car. James sat in the front seat, next to his dad, and Lily sat in the back. In five minutes, they were at the Potter's manor.

"Wow, it didn't look nearly as big in my dreams…" Lily said in a soft but audible whisper.

"What's that, Lily?" Mr. Potter said sharply.

"Oh, nothing, I just said, well, I've never looked at a house nearly as big as this one," Lily said, giving him a watery smile.

Mr. Potter looked at her through the rear-view mirror with an expression that neither James nor Lily could read. When he turned away Lily felt relieved. She didn't want anyone to know about her dreams and her worries except for James. Even now, she wasn't sure if she should have told even _him in the first place._

"James, you and Lily can go ahead and go inside. I'll get your stuff, okay?" Mr. Potter said jovially as he parked the car in the driveway and got out.

"Sure thing, Dad – um, Lily, follow me," James said as he got out of the front seat too.

Lily tried to get out too, but it seemed as though there was something wrong with the door. She jerked the handle back and forth, but it didn't seem to be doing anything. She locked and unlocked the door again and again, but it just didn't seem to work. James looked back, and seeing that she was stuck, went and opened her door from the outside.

"Hey, how'd you do that?" Lily said, confused.

"My dad put a Charm on it ages ago so that I wouldn't be able to open the door from the inside when I was really little, but he hasn't taken it off yet since now I just sit in the front with him. He's kind of forgetful when it comes to things like that, and I don't know enough magic to be able to take it off myself," James said shrugging.

"Oh, you mean like a child lock? Jeez, I should have thought of that," Lily said, hitting herself on the head as she got up and shut the door with a bang.

"A child lock – since when did people lock children in cars?" James asked, confused.

"It's a thing on Muggle cars. It's basically the same thing your dad did except that you just have to flick a switch on the door," Lily explained.

"Oh, okay – um, well, let's go then, shall we?" James said.

The two plodded up the grassy hill to James' house. It was certainly a lot bigger than Aunt Stacy's house. She smiled at the thought of having a rich cousin. She knew she shouldn't think like that, but she couldn't help it. They walked inside, and almost immediately, Lily heard a shrill squeal coming from inside.

"Oh, James, you're back! How nice, and I – well, I never…" said a short squat little old lady.

"Lily, this is Flo – our – that is to say, my –"

"Oh, to put it simply, I'm the Potters' housekeeper. Oh, Lily, you've grown so much! Last I saw you, you were just that high!" she squealed, waving her hand at knee-height.

She went up to Lily and wrapped her arms around her in a tight hug. James, Lily, and Mr. Potter who had just walked in, were all surprised to see that there were tears in her eyes.

"Lily, I'll show you your room, okay?" James said, stopping his housekeeper from nearly suffocating Lily.

"Um, sure, okay – let's go."

The two walked up the grand staircase to the next floor. There was a long corridor and four rooms on either side. The walls were painted soft creamy beige color. The ceiling was high and every five feet, there was an enormous skylight, letting the sunlight in. It was a large, cheery house, yet Lily felt as though something was missing. She pondered it for a while, and then it hit her.

"You know, James, you never talk about your mother," Lily said, looking at him.

"That's because I never knew her."

"You – oh, I'm sorry – I didn't know…" Lily said, ashamed of her curiosity.

"It's alright. Now, you do. I would have had to tell you sometime, anyway. I just thought you knew – I mean, either my mom or my dad would have had either your mom or dad as a sibling – so I just reckoned that your parents probably knew about it – or your aunt and uncle rather…"

"It's kind of awkward, isn't it?" Lily said after a moment's silence.

"I guess so. But then, there's Flo – and I've got the best friends a guy could have. And it's not as though she – left – half way through. She died just a couple of weeks after I was born," James said. It was with a softer and more saddened tone that he said, "People say there was a curse on her. I've asked Dad millions of times to tell me about it, but he says that the less importance I give to it the better off _I'll be. I'm still not quite sure what he was talking about, though. And I haven't bothered to figure it out either."_

"Curses – but – don't curses that affect a person's life – carry on through the family?" Lily said slowly.

James just shrugged. He didn't know any more about the history of the curse than Lily did, and he wasn't in the moon to dig up his mother's past. He knew barely anything about her, and he felt like keeping it that way. He was too worried about his present and future to bother with the past.

"Anyway, this'll be your room," James said, opening a door.

Lily's eyes widened as she looked into the room with awe. Unlike the rest of the house, this room had been painted with lime green and orange. The carpet was a deep maroon. All of the furniture was white-painted oak, and the accessories were all orange and pink. There seemed to be a sort of glow coming from the room, as though the brightness of all of the different colors were giving off their own light.

"Oh, is this – was this –"

"It used to be my mum's room. My dad always said that she insisted on sleeping in another room because he snored so loud. He still does, as a matter of fact."

"I'm guessing your mom liked orange," Lily said, smiling.

"Yeah, and red – and green," James added.

"Don't forget pink," said a voice behind them.

"Dad, jeez, you scared the crap out of me. Don't do that!" James said whirling around.

"Here's your trunk Lily. And here's yours, James. You both have a nice time," he said, smiling. Turning to James and putting on a serious tone in place of his sweet, jovial one he said, "I've got to get down to the Ministry. I might be a while. Don't worry if I'm not back before dinner. You know how it is nowadays."

"But Dad –"

"James, I can't argue with Crouch. He's doing everything he can to get to being Head of the Department. I can't let him down now."

"Okay, just – well, come back as soon as you can, okay?" James said, sighing.

Mr. Potter nodded and Apparated out of the house in a flash. James sighed again. Lily looked from James to where his dad had been standing and back. _They're really close, she thought. __I wish I could have a relationship like that with Aunt Stacy or Petunia. But that's impossible__._

"Anyway, what do you want to do?" James said, turning around to face Lily.

"Let's talk," she said, smiling at him.

"Talk – are you sure about that?" James asked unsurely.

*

It was Christmas morning. There was a sheer layer of ice on the window panes, and the lawn around the Potters' house was covered in three inches of snow. The world was shining white and the sunlight was filtering through the thin fog and making the snow and frost sparkle like a cluster of stars on the green grass.

Everyone in the house was still asleep, but in a few minutes, James stirred awake. His first thought was that it was Christmas. And then, he bounded off of his bed and tiptoed into his father's room. He had gotten Lily a Christmas present after she had told him that in her family they rarely exchanged presents. Apparently, the only Christmas presents she got were from Lauren, Dani, Mickey, and a certain Hufflepuff sixth year who had his eye on her. It was common knowledge to the Marauders and Lily's friends that she liked him too, but she refused to admit it. James thought back to the last prefect meeting with a grin on his face.

*flashback*

"Well, I do believe that is all that was on my agenda. You may leave, now," Professor Dumbledore said with a wave of his hand.

"Professor, I do believe we should inform them of the Halloween celebrations…" whispered Professor McGonagall.

"Ah, of course, please, take your seats once more. The Head Boy and Girl had advised that we do something different and more interesting this year, rather than the ordinary mundane feast," he told them.

"They said that we should have a sort of masquerade, if you know what I mean," put in Professor Shingling, the Defense professor.

"Oh, that would be awesome!" James shouted out, his eyes glinting.

Lily slapped him on the arm and shook her head at him. He flushed pink and stared at his feet for the rest of the meeting. Lily muffled a giggle and then fixed her eyes on Professor Dumbledore once more.

"I will be partnering you up; merely because we have observed that the prefects tend to work better together when in partners rather than on their own or in large groups. Professor Sinistra suggested that we make inter-house partners, in order to establish better inter-house relationships. The partners are as follows:" Dumbledore announced.

He adjusted his half-moon spectacles and pulled out a sheet of parchment. He glanced down the paper and then read it out loud.

"Mr. Wood and Mr. Potter; Miss Evans and Mr. Carlton; Miss Pennyfeather and Mr. Marlow…"

Lily sat up straight. Mr. Carlton – did he mean _Jeremy Sid Carlton, the sixth year? Lily's eyes had a dreamy look in them. James noticed this as he looked up at her to see what had happened and had to look back down to keep from laughing. She was in her own world. Suddenly, she became rapt with attention as she looked around the room for her 'partner.' James didn't admit it, but he would have liked to work with Lily. Instead, he was stuck with Davie Wood._

Lily caught his eye and grinned. He was easily the best-looking guy in the school. His hair was a kind of dirty blonde, like dark brown hair dyed to look lighter. His eyes were a bluish green and made any girl's heart flutter. He was tall, too – more than six feet; Lily didn't know exactly. And, to top it all off, he was Australian, with a thick Aussie accent that made Lily's heart melt. She sighed and smiled to herself. His name was Jeremy, but everyone called him Jem – or Sid, after his middle name. And, of course, the Slytherins just called him Carlton or the 'little pretty-boy'.

_You have a meeting with the Sex-God, Lily heard Dani's voice ring in her ears. She grinned to herself again. Things were going good – at the moment._

*end of flashback*

James reached for the bottom drawer of his father's bedside table. He knew his dad never put anything in it. It was just there to add to the décor. He eased it open quietly and thrust his hand into the blackness inside. He rummaged about and felt something thin, like a piece of paper. He pulled it out slowly, glancing every now and then at his sleeping father. And out came – an envelope.

James opened it slowly and pulled out the letter inside. James' heart pumped hard as he unfolded it. He read it slowly, not daring to believe what it held in its contents.

_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_It is my grave duty to tell you that Miss Liliane Evans, who has been posing as your daughter, must now move back with the remaining members of her family, that is to say, her mother's sister and brother-in-law. If you remember, Lily's own sister was sent to live there at the time of the tragedy when Lily's own parents were murdered by Lord Voldemort._

_I am extremely sorry if I have caused you any emotional distress, but I believe that this move shall be for the best. I do hope you will understand. It is essential that both Lily and James, your son, forget about whatever acquaintances they had as such young children. If Lord Voldemort were ever to track Lily or James down, it will only put the three of you in deeper danger. They must never know that they were hiding in your house._

_If ever it is required that Lily must hide once more, I will send her to your home again. If they meet at Hogwarts, I will strive to think of a story to put them off their guard. It will be harder for Voldemort to track Lily down if it is said that this girl has a brother – or a cousin. It is believed that her entire family, except for her aunt and uncle, has been murdered. Once again, I must apologize for any disturbances or inconveniences I may have caused._

_Sincerely,_

_Albus Dumbledore_

James looked in shock. So he _wasn't Lily's cousin after all. And Lily had pretended to be his __sister? __And his dad knew all about everything and hadn't mentioned anything? James shook his head and shut his eyes. He sighed deeply and opened his eyes once more. He caught sight of another letter, and picked it up to read it again._

_Dear Mr. Potter,_

_I told you in my last letter, about eleven years ago, that if ever I found Lily's life to be in danger once more, I would send her to you. That time is now upon us. I must request you to take her in once more. She has, for the last eleven years, posed under the name of Elizabeth Locker, and if need be, she will be forced to use that name once more. James and Lily believe themselves to be cousins, and by no means should they find out the truth about their relationships. It could spell disaster for both your family and hers, for numerous reasons. I do not wish to bring you trouble, but I must emphasize that your wife, Melissa, and the curse that was upon her, may interfere greatly in their future if they find out the truth._

_Lily will be sent to you over the summer break. If either James or Lily wishes, they may go over Christmas as well. I request that any memories that come to either of their minds be confirmed by saying that they met frequently in their childhood. I understand that you may not agree with my assertions or actions, but if you have any better ideas I concede that I will be glad to accept them. But for now, this is the only way._

_Sincerely,_

_Albus Dumbledore_

James slowly slipped the letters back into the envelope, which he put back in its place. He flinched as he heard his father groan and roll over. Luckily, he was still asleep. James rummaged about in the drawer until he found Lily's present. He picked it up, closed the drawer, and walked silently out of the room. He closed the door quietly.

*

A/N: Okay, now, be happy! It's a twenty-five page chapter, so it's worth the time it took to write it, right? Well, if you have any problems with the weirdness, which a lot of you probably do, just review and tell us, okay? And if you absolutely love it (yeah, right…) review and tell us, anyway, okay? See ya!


	10. Chapter Ten

A/N: Wow, thanks for all the reviews! There were a lot! We were so extremely very surprised and hyperly happy!

*

Lily's eyes popped open and she sat up. Taking in her surroundings, she remembered the past day and lay back down, sinking into the fabric beneath her. _Whoever knew that a bed could be so incredibly comfortable…but that isn't the point. She swung her legs over the side of the bed and stood up with a sigh._

"Christmas!" she said in realization.

She glanced out of the window and she was delighted.

"There's snow and everything!" she smiled. "The best Christmas since…since...oh, I don't know _when there's been a Christmas like this!"_

A knock sounded on her door as she bounded off her bed.

"Come in!" she yelled.

James popped his head in. She smiled at him, but he looked preoccupied.

"Uh – Lils…do you usually wear your pajamas around other people?" he asked, making Lily blush and look down. "I mean- it is fine, I was just wondering. Really, there's no need to change," he said hurriedly, afraid he had offended her.

            
She laughed, "I think I'll change. But yeah- I do at home, anyway."

"This could be your home," he said softly.

She only half heard the comment, and simply smiled at him.

"Well…"

"What?" he asked.

He was staring at her queerly. _He's acting funny this morning…, Lily thought to herself._

"Well I was going to change – but if you feel the need to stay – I mean – you _are my cousin. You could just turn around."_

For some reason, he gave her a silly, embarrassed smile.

"No – it – is really okay, I'll go. I'll be downstairs; I think Flo is making breakfast. See you in a few," he said as he stumbled out of the room.

Lily shook her head and muttered to herself, "Strange indeed…"

                                                          *

A few minutes later, she descended the stairs fully dressed. James watched her closely from inside the kitchen. She smiled at him, but again he didn't respond – only stared. 

"Good Morning, Lily!" Flo said, giving her a quick squeeze. "It's so nice to have you here again."

James observed the housekeeper with a peculiar look. Lily smiled and nodded.

"I'm sorry to say I don't have a very vivid memory of you, Flo. You're so nice; I don't see how I could have forgotten…"

"Ah, well, memories come and go." Flo replied, attending to the eggs and bacon on the stove. 

"What a pleasant smell!"

All heads turned to the door as Mr. Potter entered the kitchen with a grin directed at Lily and James, sitting next to each other at the table.

"I do hope that you two are ready for a fun day. I presume you've seen the snow, hmm?"

"Yep," Lily replied, smiling at the man she found so familiar.

In fact, the whole house was familiar. But she had been here before – at least that's what they told her – so it was only natural… the glitch was that it didn't feel complete. Something was missing.

"You're being awfully quiet today, James," he said, nodding towards his son. "Usually you're up and about and singing and dancing." 

James blushed the color of Lily's hair as he muttered, "I don't do that…"

"Is it because Lily is here? So you know, last time she was here, you both –"

"What?" Lily and James said together, listening intently.

Mr. Potter seemed to change his mind.

"Oh, nothing – it's not important."

Lily sank back into her chair. _Of course it's important. I still have no idea what's going on here. James was staring at her again. Mr. Potter took a seat across from them. A few minutes later, Flo also joined the three of them at the table._

"This is nice." Mr. Potter said, sending smiles across the table.

Flo agreed. James remained silent, and Lily was deep in thought.

"Is something wrong?"

"Huh?" James asked, waking up from his trance and looking up.

 Lily's glance went from Mr. Potter, to James, and back.

"Nope – it's nothing at all. Just a little tired…"

"They work you hard at school, I'm sure," he winked.

Breakfast was rather uneventful. The food was so appetizing that everyone was concentrating solely on eating. After setting their forks down, they looked at Mr. Potter.

"Well, what do you kids say that we wait until this evening to open presents?  The snow only stays fresh for so long…"

"Excuse me, kids?" James snorted. "We aren't kids."

Mr. Potter grinned, suddenly reminding Lily of his son. _Even they aren't aware of how alike they are._

"So you aren't. So you aren't. Joining us, Flo?"

"Of course," the little witch replied. "After I clean up in here, you can expect me."

"That's good, because we'll need an even number of people."

  
"What do you mean by _that?" Lily asked. "Oh, not again…" she grinned. "My friend and I already got James and Sirius a few days ago…"_

"I guess Flo will be on my team then. Sounds like you two will be teaming up."

Lily looked and James. James looked at Lily. They shrugged.

"Now you three wait for me." Flo shook her finger at them as they scampered out the door like little children. 

"Dad," James whined. "You cheat every year anyway… You know I can't use magic here, yet." 

Mr. Potter simply winked as he said slyly, "Fine, no magic…I promise."

James had a strong suspicion that William Potter's fingers were behind his back, crossed. He narrowed his eyes, making a sign that he'd be watching for any such cheating before turning back to a confused and amused Lily.

They built a snowman first, waiting for Flo to come out. When she did, she was entertained by the fact that _James was the snowman, or at least, his father had built one around him magically and he seemed to be having trouble getting out. Lily was doubled over laughing; with James' eyes glaring at her from behind the snow – just about the only part of him that was left visible._

"You're supposed to be on _my team!" his voice floated out, muffled. _

"I guess I am, at that."

She tapped her chin thoughtfully. Shuffling a bunch of snow into her hands, she hurled it at an unsuspecting Flo, who stopped in her tracks.

"Hey! Who said it's started already?"

Lily was busy kicking James free of his snowman imprisonment – and Mr. Potter and Flo were far ahead in making a fort.

"C'mon James!" she said, and she grabbed his arm and they dodged a storm of snowballs.

"You two are nothing but a pair of cheaters!" James yelled back at them, laughing.

He knew his yard well, and directed Lily to the small forest area off to the side.

"We can build a fort just outside here. They'll be faster, since they're_ cheating," he shot a glance behind him, "but we can take cover in the forest. And we'll win anyway."_

He winked at her. Both of them got down on their hands and knees, crawling around and building up a stronghold. Lily glanced over the top of it and noticed that the others' fort was much more elaborate.

"Does your father always cheat?" she asked.

"Yeah, pretty much – but I usually win anyway. He's too old, if you know what I mean."

They laughed, shooting a snowball over the top and smacking Flo right in the face.

"Why's it always me?" her voice floated over.

Lily snickered, "I'll make a slingshot, and you keep throwing."

"A slingshot…" he repeated with a hint of puzzlement in his voice.

"It's a Muggle thing. They're using magic, so I'm going to use my Muggle abilities."

James looked even more puzzled, if possible, but had no time to think about it as another giant snowball went whizzing past. _At least he's acting normal again. I was afraid that something was wrong…I'll ask him about it later. Lily was pelted with a snowball and frantically handed James a raggedy slingshot, which he used awkwardly at first._

"You know, some Muggles are brilliant."

Lily glanced around, seeing that Mr. Potter and Flo had a horrible aiming system. She chuckled as James' fingers fumbled over the slingshot, not really knowing what he was doing. He grunted and handed it over to her.

"This is pointless. Even cheating, the two of them suck at snowball fighting."

"Is that so?" she asked playfully, fingering snow in her palm.

James gave her a hard look.

"Uh, I –"

His voice was muffled, however, as there was soon a snowball in his face.

"Hey? What was that for?" he asked, grinning at Lily, who shrugged nonchalantly. 

"Alright – if that's how you want to play – then you asked for it."

He gathered up some snow and started pelting her repeatedly. They began a heated chase around the yard. In their hurry, they didn't notice the two adults, who had conjured some rickety chairs and were having a fine time watching them try to demolish one another.

Lily stopped suddenly, and James ran right into her before noticing. "Ha!" she pushed him over and jumped on top frantically, managing to sit on him.

"I – can't – breathe – get – off – now."

Lily simply laughed, until James' face turned red and he held up his hands in defeat. 

"Alright – you – win."

"Okay, then," she said smiling as she jumped off, lying back in the snow. "That was fun."

"That's easy for you to say," he replied, brushing snow off of his jacket. "I _always win."_

He put on a pouting face.

"Well not this time." She said, sitting up.

He was staring at her strangely again.

"James? Is there something wrong, or…what?"

He shook himself out of it, and sighed deeply as in preparing himself for a long speech.

"Lily, I – I don't know how to tell you. This morning, I –"

"Come on, you two! We're having hot chocolate!" Flo yelled from the other side of the yard.   
  
James glanced over at her and ran off. _He acts relieved to have not told me whatever it was – most peculiar._

*

James stared at the wall, his hot chocolate mug sitting on the table, every drop gone. _I don't know why it's so hard for me to tell her. It really isn't that big of a deal. I mean – so what if we aren't cousins. We're friends anyway – right?_

Maybe he didn't want to be friends. Something had happened, since he had found out. It disgusted him in a way. Just because he knew that he was wasn't related to her, all of a sudden she was attractive – though she had been before, too… _Oh, come off it James. Just because you can't get a girlfriend doesn't mean that you have to pounce on the first one you might have a chance with._

With sudden clarity, he realized that even if he did happen to be – fond of her, she would be sickened to find out; she still thought that they were related – which could be a problem. He didn't know how long until the whole truth came out, but it would certainly be a weight off of his back. But even then, there was no way that she would be interested in him. No, the whole thing was way too awkward. He resolved to let the whole idea go, especially since the Australian guy at Hogwarts was into her. As if, James would be competition to _him._

"Hey James," Lily said, pulling up a chair in front of him. "What're ya thinking about?"

He snapped out of it.

"Oh, don't worry – it – it isn't anything."

"But you have to be thinking about something – even if it isn't organized. You're always thinking."

"Okay, professor," he said, grinning.

She smiled back, and said, "I didn't mean it like that."

"I know," he replied softly, watching her closely. 

"What were you going to tell me before James?" she leaned forward, staring him in the face intently.

Almost too close for James, now that he was aware that they weren't related and he was sitting so close to a_ girl. He grimaced. __No, it's just Lily. It's always been the same, just Lily. But he was still uncomfortable. __What was it like – pretending to be her brother? I remember some of it now – we had so much fun. How could I have ever forgotten? She did too. _

"Well…"

"Oh, come on, James. Cousins aren't supposed to keep secrets. I thought we agreed on that."

She punched him lightly in the arm, and he continued to watch her. 

"That's just it, Lils," he said carefully. "This morning, I found –"

"Okay, everyone, it's time for presents!"

Mr. Potter entered the room, carrying a handful of gifts.

"Damn the presents…" Lily muttered so quietly that nobody heard.

*

James watched Lily from outside the living room. She was sitting on the couch, smiling happily at the Christmas tree and looking totally relaxed. Now was the time to tell her.

Only, his feet wouldn't move. He didn't know what was wrong. He was hesitating, but he knew that she needed to know about all of this too. They had both been looking for this answer since the beginning of the year. It all made sense now.

He watched as she ran a hand through her red hair and leaned back with a sigh. _No, no, no James. Stop thinking about her being pretty! In her mind, she's still your cousin, isn't that incest-like? Well, to her. Not to me anymore…_

Too quick, he decided. It was all too quick. She needed to know, but he didn't know _how to tell her. And he didn't want her to be awkward around him like he now was with her. He wanted to be friends with her, at least. And telling her might ruin that. It was something he was unwilling to risk._

_Now what? When will I tell her – now? A silent answer slipped into his mind. __When the time is right? He shook his head at his own thoughts. __What kind of advice is that? Idiots these days…_

He smiled and entered the room. Lily watched him approach lazily, and scooted over on the couch. She patted the spot beside her gently and he took it, looking over at her and grinning routinely.

*

A/N: Please review again! We really enjoy reading your comments!


	11. Chapter Eleven

A/N: I'm sorry it took so long, but I wanted to take a break from writing over Thanksgiving Break. As a friend of mine said, "If you've got a bone to pick with me go ahead and do it."

*

"So, what was it you wanted to tell me about?" Lily asked him.

"Well, I –" he began, but he stopped.

He didn't know where to begin. Even if he just simply told her the story from beginning to end, she was sure to ask questions. Lily knew what a prankster he was; it would be only natural for him to come up with a joke like this. And even when she did believe him, _if she believed him, she was bound to feel – uncomfortable at the least. He knew that he never would have even thought of asking her to stay in his house, or would have been alright with just 'turning around' when she was changing if she __wasn't his cousin._

"I just wanted to show you your present," he said quickly.

"But we already opened our gifts. Well, _you didn't. You were too busy getting the snow out of your clothes," she said, giggling._

"I know. But I want to open mine. And I have something else for you too," he said.

He wasn't lying. He had indeed bought another present for her. He just hadn't been sure at the time whether she would like it or not. And there was the fact that after finding out, he had been too – shy to really talk to her or give her anything more.

"How sweet – well, let's go then," she said, grabbing his hand and leading him down the hallway.

"Where are you two off to, all of a sudden?" Mr. Potter asked as he walked in the room with a mug of coffee to find that they were leaving. (A/N: Every time I write 'Mr. Potter', I can't help but think of James himself! It's strange, isn't it? I mean, _I'm strange. Don't get me wrong there…)_

"Oh, we were just –" Lily began, but James cut her off.

"Where are _you going?" James asked suspiciously._

Mr. Potter shook his head, laid down his coffee, sighed, and said, "I'm sorry, James. I've got to run down to the Ministry again. Apparently, Moody has found something new. He's brilliant, but he's getting a bit… Well, I have to run. I'll catch you two later, then."

He picked up his coffee and took out his wand. He was about to Apparate when James spoke again.

"Dad, you'll be back soon, won't you? Won't you?"

"James, I'll be gone as long as it takes, and no longer than that."

*

"James, that was so sweet of you!" Lily said, throwing her arms around him after unwrapping his present for her.

"It's only a book… and a Muggle one at that," he said, shrugging, but nevertheless pleased to see that she had liked it.

"So what if it's a Muggle book? Shakespeare's my favorite!" she said, tousling his hair. "Anyway, now you have to open my pressies for you!"

James sighed and reached forward for a lumpy package. It was something soft, and James was vaguely reminded of the time when he hid in the laundry basket among all of the linen and clothing.

"Oh, but wait – not here – open it in your room – please? Well, you can open _that here," Lily said, pointing to a long thing box wrapped in silver, "but open this when you're alone."_

"What's wrong with – okay, um, then – well, here goes nothing…" he muttered, ripping the silver wrapping off of the box.

He undid the Spellotape that was keeping it bound and slowly took the lid off of the box. He let out an audible gasp; his jaw dropped. In the box was the best broom he had ever seen in his life. He read with utmost amazement the silver lettering that spelled out the words Silver Arrow. It was a new model, and had only come out a month ago. It was an amazing broom, and was the first on the lists of all Quidditch players. They had been in such high demand that even those who ordered one had to wait four weeks until they received it. But, for some reason, probably lack of stock, the company was supposed to be closing down. No more Silver Arrows were going to be in the market. And yet, somehow, Lily had gotten him one.

"Wow, Lily, this is – it's amazing! I'm probably the only guy in school to own one of these! Thanks a lot – but – where did you get the money to buy it?" he asked, slightly confused.

"Well, it wasn't just my present. Before the holidays, well, I talked to Sirius and Remus, and they gave me a bit of the money that they were going to use to by you a present to me, and so I ordered it out of the _Which Broomstick catalog as soon as I could so that it would be here by Christmas," Lily explained, grinning happily._

"Thanks, Lily, and I'll have to tell them thanks too. But, knowing them, they'll know what I want to say…" he trailed off, looking down with a smile at his new broom.

"Now, we have to go up so you can open this one. This one's only from me. No one else helped me pay for this," Lily said, smiling at him, proud of what she had bought him.

"Um, alright – let's go, then, shall we?"

He picked up the package delicately. He wasn't sure why, but the package seemed to be too light to be anything of importance, and yet, it seemed to give off a kind of aura that he hadn't expected from a flimsy package wrapped in tissue. They walked into his room and James set down the package on his pale blue bedspread. Lily cocked her head to one side so as to read the words on the quilt, under which was a thin, silver arrow.

"Are the – um – are the Appleby Arrows your favorite Quidditch team?" she asked uncertainly.

"Yeah, they are – more or less. Remus still goes on about the Cannons, but the Arrows are far better. I guess you know why I was so happy to get ones of these," he said, winking at her as he gestured to his brand new broom.

"Well, go on. Open this one," she said, sitting down carefully on the bed next to him.

James bit his lip as he reached for the package. Carefully, he ripped off the shiny, silver ribbon that had tied it up, and pulled off the white tissue paper. He let out another gasp as the thin silver material of the garment ran through his fingers.

"It's an Invisibility Cloak, James."

"I've never even _seen one of these before," he said in awe, running his hand over its smooth surface._

"Put it on," Lily said, smiling.

James whirled it around and fastened it just below his neck. As the rest of the cloak fell into place, they both watched in amazement as James entire body, except for his head, disappeared from view. Carefully, he lifted it up so that he could cover his head. Lily watched the shimmers in the air as he whirled around. She couldn't see him, but she could hear the excitement in his voice and the sound of his footsteps, and she could make out certain places in the air where he stood that would blur together like a mirage when he moved.

She laughed and walked up to him. Giggling, she pulled the cloak from his face. Her smile faded, though, as she realized how close her face was to his. James looked down. He too stopped smiling and laughing. But Lily studied his face for a moment. Her memories were now coming back, stronger than before. James looked back up at her, surprised that she hadn't moved away or said anything.

"Sorry…" Lily muttered, as she backed away and sat back down on the bed, looking at her knees.

"Thanks, Lily – and, well, I'm not even going to ask how you found this," he said softly as he took off the cloak and set it down carefully on his bed.

"Um – yeah – sure – you're welcome," she said awkwardly.

He sat down next to her. Neither of them knew what to say. They both sat in silence, staring into the mirror across from them. After a while, however, James smiled. His smile turned into a grin and he looked deeply into Lily's reflection. She raised an eyebrow at she looked at his. Then, James let out a laugh and tapped her on the back.

"You're it!" he said, laughing, as he ran out the door.

Lily stood in surprise for a while, her mouth hanging open just slightly, but then she too let out a yell and ran down the stairs after him. She had no clue _why they were doing this, two fifteen-year-old prefects – but she admitted to herself that she was having fun._

"Ha – I got you – whoops!" Lily shrieked.

She had tagged James back, but had tripped on the edge of the rug and flew forwards, knocking James down. (A/N: I know; I know. This happens in nearly everyone's stories, but too bad! I'm using it too! I'm not adding fluff, yet, though – duh! They're still 'cousins'!) She shook her head as she got up, and dusted off her pants. James rolled over onto his back to look at her. His brow was furrowed in a way that made Lily think that he was studying her harder than he had ever done before. She blushed under his gaze, though she wasn't sure why and turned away.

"Um, so, I'm it, is it?" James asked, getting up.

"No, let's not play anymore. At least, let's play something other than _tag, I mean, that's a kid's game," Lily said in a baby voice._

"And you sound exactly like one, didn't you know?" James put in.

She narrowed her eyes and stuck out her tongue at him. He just smiled back and shook his head. Damn, he had no clue what it was, but he knew that something about Lily just – made him go crazy. It wasn't her looks, though they weren't half bad.

_Okay, I admit it. Forget the half bad. She's the best-looking girl I've ever seen. Damn Sirius – if he wasn't so much better looking than I__ am, I might have had a chance with her before we – uh – found out__ that we were cousins. And she's smart and funny, too. And she's not that ditzy, giggly type of girl. She's not like those twins – Dani and Mickey. She's sensible and she knows what she's doing. Damn, I love that woman… Wait – what am I thinking? She may not be my cousin – but she doesn't know that. And – I'm only fifteen… I'm not supposed to have feelings like this. This is just some silly crush – like that time in second year when you thought you liked Adriana Sliger. This is just one of those times. It doesn't mean anything – so forget about it.__ And even if it does – you haven't got a chance. She thinks you're related already. Liking your cousin would just be – sickening. But – what if she does know…_

James shook his head again, to get his thoughts out of his mind. Lily noticed this and mistook his frustration for a mistake on her part and bit her lip as she approached him to apologize.

"I'm sorry, James – did I do something wrong? I'm sorry if I did," she said, cocking her head so that she could look him in the face, what with his head drooping and his eyes glued to the floor.

"What – no – you didn't do anything," he said, giving her a weak smile.

"Are you sure?" she asked him, shooting him a playful look out of the corner of her eye.

"Yes, I'm sure!" he said, a bit too loudly for Lily's liking.

"Jeez, what _has gotten into you? You're acting so – so strangely all of a sudden. And now – jeez, you've no reason __whatsoever to get angry like that!" she snapped back._

"Lily, I'm not being _angry," he said, rolling his eyes._

 "Fine, then – you are not angry. I'd just like it if you didn't treat me like – I don't know. I'd like just a little respect if you _don't mind," she said._

She stormed out of the room, leaving James completely confused and somewhat annoyed by her sudden show of aggravation. He sighed and sat down on the couch, kicking his feet up onto the table. He leaned back sighed deeply once more.

_Well, there go your chances with her…_

"James, is that you?" Flo asked, walking in.

James looked up at her. He bit his lip, seriously contemplating something. She seemed to understand that something was bothering him, and so she sat down next to her. She ran her hand over his hair, trying to make it lie flat, but she knew it was impossible, just as he did. It was more for the gesture it showed him than the trial and failure that mattered.

"What's wrong, James? What made Lily – well, why did she just – leave, like that?" she asked him softly.

_I can tell her, I think. She knows, anyway – that's for sure. She was there then. I'll tell her. I'll ask her. She can help me. Flo knows me better than anyone else – except for maybe Sirius. She'll know what to do._

"Flo, can I ask you something?" he asked slowly.

"Jimmy, boy, you know you can _always ask me whatever you want," she said, smiling._

"Flo, why did you, Dad, and Professor Dumbledore lie to Lily and me and say that we were cousins? We're not. I know that, now. I – I found out, accidentally. I didn't mean to. But, why did you guys lie to us?" James asked, staring ahead of him, frowning.

"James, whatever the three of us did, we did it for you two. You're such a child, Jimmy. Can't you think of any reason for such an action? We didn't do it to hurt either of you. You can assure yourself of that. I love both of you as if you were my own children. Even your dad looks on Lily as his daughter. I suppose you know that for two years she posed as your sister. He grew so attached to her – you won't even believe it. Why do you think you both had memories and dreams of one another? Lily's talked to me about it too, once or twice. She – she just never doubted whether or not you two were cousins. Well, essentially, I could tell that her main thought was that, but she never put it into words."

"I can't think of anything, Flo."

"Honestly, now, Jimmy, are you still a little toddler that has to be spoon-fed every bit of information? Think hard, boy, and you'll get it. Just think. Think about everything. Think about your dreams and your memories. Think of everything that has happened since you first met Lily. Think of her. Think of – think of your feelings for her. How have _they changed since you found out that you __weren't related to her, hmm?" Flo asked. "Have they fallen apart, or have they grown more __intimate?"_

James' eyes grew wide. For a second, he had frozen. His brain seemed to have shut down. But within seconds, it was up and working again. James turned his head sharply to look at her. His eyes were full of questioning, yet hers were full of warmth and understanding. She smiled affectionately down at him.

"Those letters weren't there on accident. If you must know, I didn't agree with what Will and Albus were doing. I put the letters there myself. Really, now, you don't think I stand oblivious to everything that goes on in this household, do you? I knew you had hid her present there. I know what she got you. I knew that you would be tempted to read those letters. I could see you falling in love with her as the hours passed, James. I'm not as thick-skulled as you may think," she said, shaking him up with her hands.

"Flo, I never said you were 'thick-skulled'," he said, speaking for the first time in minutes.

"I know. I'm just trying to get my point across," she said, smiling playfully at him.

"It's across, Flo. It's there. I've got it. I just don't know what to do about it," he said, slouching back against the couch.

"Give it time, Jimmy. She'll find out, too. I'm sure of it. She will need more time than you, though. She doesn't have a family like you do. I've met them; they're horrible. But they love her, and that's what counts. If it takes her until she graduates to find out that you're not her cousin, and that she loves you, it'll take that long. You're not to go around and messing with it. You'll only make everything worse. Is that understood," Flo said sternly.

"It's understood, yes, sir!" James said, saluting her with a wide grin on his face. "Flo, you're the best!"

He threw his arms around her and hugged her tightly. Even though he was fifteen, he didn't find it awkward in the least. Flo wasn't a 'housekeeper' or a 'maid' – she was a friend. Even Sirius loved being around her. She may have had gray hair and fine wrinkles on her wizened face, but she was their friend. And she was the best.

"I know, Jimmy. I know."

*

A/N: Okay, was that a good chapter, to make up for all the time it took? Was it absolutely, outrageously horrible? Well, whatever it was, review and let us know!


	12. Chapter Twelve

*

James stopped running his fingers over his new invisibility cloak long enough for a curious thought to invade his mind. _If Flo thinks I love Lily…has my dad noticed anything? Wouldn't that be weird for him? Love is such a strong word anyway…I think maybe Flo is stretching the truth. He scratched his head. __Or maybe she knows more about me than I__ do._

Before he could come to any conclusions, his bedroom door was pushed open carefully. Lily poked her head in and glanced around.

"What happened to knocking?" James smiled.

She stepped in solemnly, closing the door behind her. "I thought you said I could do whatever I wanted around here." She didn't sound friendly. 

"Oh- right…" he trailed off, at a loss for saying anything of interest. He stared at her. 

She shifted uncomfortably and seated herself on the bed, next to him. She lay down, stretching herself over the soft comforter. Tilting her head to look at him, she let out a sigh, as if what she was about to say wasn't easy. "James, I don't feel comfortable around you anymore."

_What? But she couldn't know about…could she?_

"I mean- you've been acting so weird lately. It isn't fun anymore around you. All you do is stare at me- what are you angry with me about?"

_Why does she still think I'm angry with her? Of all things I am, I'm certainly not angry. "There are other reasons people stare…" he replied almost inaudibly._

She turned back to him with a funny expression. "See- comments like that, staring like that. _Really- what are you mad at me for?"_

_Oh, Lily, if I could only tell you the truth…which is worse – this or the truth? I'm so confused…She must have noticed his thoughtful look, and scowled respectively. "What James? Making up a lie to tell me? Do you always lie to me?" she asked the last question a little softer. She rolled over on her side, away from him.___

"Lily, I…" He stretched out an arm and rolled her back over. "I'm not lying to you. And I'm _not mad at you."_

"Does this have something to do with your dad?" she asked doubtfully

James was bewildered. "My…dad – of course not – I just – what is it?"

Lily shrugged, saying softly, "I don't know, James. You're going to have to do better than this. If you aren't mad at me, then what's with the strange attitude?"

He tried to think of a way to intelligently put this, without letting her in on anything too close to the truth. "I'm not mad…" he repeated, "but I've…realized something. And I don't know what to do about it."

"Ooh." She sat up, staring at him in excitement. "Realized what? Can I help?"

James smiled down at her. "No. It isn't anything you can help with."

Her smile faded. "Well at least tell me." 

"I-I- it's not something I'm free to tell." He finished quickly and glanced away.

"Oh," was all Lily said, sliding off his bed and leaving the room, only glancing back once.

James put his head in his hands, muttering to himself, "What a mess…"

*

            Lily sat in what had been her room, over the break. And now…now it was time to go back to Hogwarts. She sighed, smiled slightly, and pushed her trunk shut forcefully. It had been…fun, and interesting, at the very least. This house was so full of life…it was abnormal and wonderful to her. Her house wasn't hell or anything, but compared to this, it might have been.

Only- James had been strange lately. All of the staring and smiling vaguely – it scared her. Was he plotting something horrible? The only other time a guy had stared at her like that was…third year…the guy who sent her a valentine. She fell back against her bed and rubbed a hand over her forehead. _What the heck am I thinking?  She laughed nervously. __I really am a lunatic. James doesn't…fancy me. Ack, for God's sake, we're cousins!_

In the motion of picking up her trunk, she paused. _He is rather cute…so easy to talk to. And I feel so...happy around him. Suddenly, she felt a compulsion to stuff something in her mouth. __It's a good thing I don't speak my thoughts out loud. She'd never had this problem before….and it wasn't something she could find the answer to in the library. __But lately…I don't know what to think of him now. She smiled and decided that until he began to act normal again, she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of a good conversation._

Mr. Potter stepped inside the room. "Good morning, Lily. Are you ready to go back to school?"

She smiled slightly, saying, "As much as I can be."

"I'll just take this down to the car for you," he said, as he nodded and took her trunk for her.

He winked and disappeared into the hallway. Flo entered a few seconds later, glancing at Lily with shining eyes. 

"Oh, Lily, it was so great to see you again! I wish you didn't have to go!"

"Yeah, me neither." She mumbled. 

Flo grabbed a hold of her hand. "I'll take you downstairs. I think James is already there."  
  
  
  


"He _is mad at me for something. I know it."_

Flo twisted her head around and looked closely at the red-head. "You say- he's mad at you?"

"I think so. He's been avoiding me…but it's the staring that really gets to me, when we're together."

Flo suddenly smiled. It was one of those smiles that suggested that the person knew everything, whether someone had told them or not. They walked out of the front door together, rubbing their hands together for warmth.

"James thinks a lot of you Lily. I wouldn't say he's mad at you…I just think he's having a few emotional difficulties at the moment. Give him time," she said, squeezing Lily into a suffocating hug. "Take care of him. Take care of James."

That was all she said, before pushing Lily towards the car, where James and Mr. Potter were already seated. 

Lily opened the door and plopped in without really knowing what she was doing. She glanced at James and he stared at her. She let out a breath. _Here we go again…_

*

            "Lily!" the twins practically jumped on her, squeezing her into a bone-breaking hug. Lauren stood off to the side grinning widely. "It's nice to see you again. My family was – uh – let me just say the Christmas tree is shredded."

Lily paused, trying to imagine it, and burst out laughing. She pulled away from the twins and gave Lauren a light hug as well.

"Yep, it's good to see you again too."

She glanced around and saw James smiling with his friends. He peeked over at her for a second and his smile faded.

She turned away, telling them softly, "James has been acting strange lately. I just don't know…"

"What do you mean, strange?" Mickey asked her smile fading. 

"He's just…quiet. And he stares a lot."

"Do you mean he stares at you?"

"Yeah," she answered, not really paying attention.

Her three friends exchanged looks and began to laugh loudly.

"What?" Lily asked, following them back into the castle. "_What?"_

They didn't answer Instead, they only laughed harder.

*

_Uh oh,__ maybe this wasn't such a good idea. James shook his head, watching his friends' expressions. He had just told them the whole cousin dilemma. It was slightly surprising, though. They didn't show one bit of shock._

"Great!" Sirius suddenly exclaimed.

Remus and Peter nodded. 

"Now you can finally ask her out!"

"Ye – _What did you say?" _

"Oh yes, Prongsie. It's very obvious."

"Yeah – we talked to Lily's friends."

"They agreed."

James put a hand to his head, muttering, "You aren't serious."

"Well actually, I am." Sirius said, giving a funny grin. "But that isn't the point. Come on James – it's so obvious to us that you two like each other."

"Padfoot – maybe I like her. Okay, I admit it. But she won't – she wouldn't – she doesn't –"

The other three Marauders only chuckled.

"Yes, she does. I'm the master at these things," Sirius said, puffing his chest out.

"Oh no – not again…" they groaned. 

"What? I _am."_

"Right…"

James sighed, saying softly, "Well, anyway – there's no possible way. She'd think it was incest."

"Let me just remind you – you _aren't cousins. Understand?"_

"I know that. But she doesn't," he added.

"What?" the three of them exclaimed.

"You didn't tell her?"

"That's not good." Peter mumbled, shaking his head.

James shot him an annoyed look.

"It would be too weird. Then I would_ never have a chance."_

There was a long pause, before Remus told them, "I guess."

"Well, tell her as soon as you can. I'm sick of hearing about this." Peter muttered.

He pulled his covers over his head. His "Good night!" came out muffled.

*

"How can you pay attention to- to_ this?" Dani whispered to Lily, who was furiously scribbling notes._

Professor Binns droned on. History of Magic was easily the most boring subject, and Lily's unusual awareness in the class was mildly stunning.

Lily shrugged. "You know I don't normally – not in this class, anyhow. I'm just…awake today."

"You've got that right." Mickey mumbled from the next seat over. "I'm about to fall asleep."

Dani snickered.

"Well, Lauren already_ is asleep."_

"It figures."

Suddenly, a note flew over their heads from behind and landed carefully in front of Lily. She scrunched up her forehead and unfolded it slowly.

_Lils __–_

_This is very boring, if you haven't noticed. Up for a prank?_

_– James_

Lily grinned. Maybe James was back to normal…

_James –_

_Where and when and what?_

_– Lily_

The next few minutes were a flurry of notes and whispering. The Professor hardly noticed; he never had before, why would he start now? 

They decided on dinner that night. The subject was Snape, of course. He was always the primary target, being the slime ball that he was. 

Lily almost believed that James was himself again, and she wouldn't have to worry about it anymore, until she glanced behind her and found him staring again. She let out a long, exasperated breath.

*

Snape's hair burst into a ball of blue flames and after a minute of his friends jumping up and down and pointing, he realized it. Sections of the Gryffindor and Ravenclaw tables were laughing hysterically. 

Snape ran frantically around in circles, grabbing a large goblet of pumpkin juice and dumping it on his head. It splashed to the floor, drowning him. Dumbledore looked up then. He glanced once around the Hall, shook his head with a thin smile, and turned back to his dinner for the time being.

Meanwhile, James sent a wink Lily's way, and she brightened. _Maybe he's being normal again, after all. _

After dinner, Lily made her way to the library, deciding to get a little extra work done. She didn't expect, however, to find Remus and James already there. James was leaning over a book, something Lily didn't seem him do very often, despite his high marks. And Remus was talking animatedly about something or another. She joined their table, dropping her stack of books with a thud.

"That was great – back there with Snape," James said to her.

"Hmm – oh right, of course it was," she muttered absentmindedly as she flipped through the pages of her book, head leaning into her palm.

Suddenly, in came Sirius and Mickey, hand in hand. Lily looked surprised, the other boys watched with strange expressions. Their two friends must not have noticed them, because they went over to another spot in the library. 

"Dani isn't going to like this." Lily said, shaking her head.

But that was before Dani walked in, saw Sirius and Mickey, and grinned while she approached them. Lily had to lean her chair back in order to see what was going on with them.

Dani sat in the seat opposite them, and said something. They all laughed. Mickey leaned over and kissed Sirius on the cheek, causing him to blush, which only made the twins laugh harder. Suddenly, try to see more, Lily leaned a little too far back in her chair and consequently toppled over. The next thing she knew, all of her friends were crowded around, grinning.

"Are you _alright?"_

*

A/N: Sorry for the long wait, again, and the short chapter. It's been busy around here. Anyway, thanks for the reviews, of course, and we hope everyone had a nice Christmas!


End file.
